On The Way There
by LovelyJB
Summary: While on vacation in Vietnam, Troy’s troubles start when a prank puts him on the wrong train. With the help of a local girl, he must find a way back to Saigon to his fiancée. His adventure eventually leads him to his true love. TroyxOC
1. Saigon Dep Lam, Saigon Oi

**Okay, so this is my first non-Troypay HSM story. Yes, I know I told you I wouldn't upload until next year, but conveniently this is a project for my English class. ****This is a bonus for you guys, because all I had to do was change the names of my characters.**

**I guess this is my way of introducing more culture into fanfics. This story is set completely in Vietnam, so basically when any of the characters speak to certain other characters, just register that it's in Vietnamese, even though I'll point it out whenever I need to. Oh, and if a dialogue is in italics, that means it's the translation of a previous dialogue, okay?**

**In reality, no one in Vietnam is actually supposed to refer to _Ho Chi Minh City_ as Saigon, but every Vietnamese outside Vietnam still calls it that. **

**Now, there's going to be no racial discrimination in this story, don't worry, and I'm going to have to write some Vietnamese at parts when it's totally necessary.**

**This is based off a Vietnamese comedy me and my dad watched. **

**I love my motherland, and I'm hoping I can express it in this story. :) I really, really hope you'll like it. You probably won't review as much, since it isn't a Troyella or Troypay, but I won't care because I'm doing what I've always wanted.**

**_Saigon Dep Lam, Saigon Oi -_ _Saigon, you're beautiful _**

* * *

It was a hot day in Vietnam. Hot, but not as hot as it could've been. 

The air was noisy and moist, the faint fragrance of Mother Nature was still recognizable through the thick fumes of the city. The sun glared down at every corner of the plain, so there was no room for shade. Motorbikes everywhere, all the cars around them drove at a steady and slow pace, completely vulnerable to be taken advantage by the busy cyclists. Merchants called out from their stands in loud Vietnamese, yelling "Fruits! Vegetables! Fresh and cheap!". Others carried their stocks hanging from a beam set on their shoulder, their tired suntanned faces hidden under their conical straw hats.

The street was packed, the road was wide but was completely overrun with pedestrians and every sidewalk was occupied with some sort of business. The cafes and buildings around were tightly fitted together so there was absolutely no space in between.

Troy had never been to Vietnam before. He had seen images in textbooks and read about its history, but this was the first time he had ever seen it with his own eyes.

He had come here with a group of five friends, all of whom were in for their first time as well. One of them was his recent (though unofficial) fiancée Gabriella. She and Troy had studied Vietnamese after they left high school, and after seven years they were able to speak and read the language. Along with them were their old schoolmates and best friends, Chad and Taylor, and two new friends, Kim and her husband Thuy, who they met in college.

Kim and Thuy were natives of Albuquerque, but both were much familiar with Saigon. Because they had been bred traditionally from Vietnamese parents, the couple was convenient to take along, seeing as Chad and Taylor didn't know any Vietnamese.

The group had arrived at Saigon merely two days ago and had settled down in a hotel, so no one had actually seen any of the sights yet. While everybody took their time in resting and looking at maps and where they should go, Troy had become bored and instead he decided to explore the streets by himself.

Troy snapped his camera at four young Vietnamese girls nearby, giggling and holding hands as they walked down the street together, all wearing white_ ao dai_ with their long black hair flowing behind them. A grin crept onto his face and looked down proudly at the image on the camera screen. Tucking the camera safely into his pocket, he stopped at a sugarcane juice stand. A girl was standing by the stand, looking a little bored. Her skin was slightly tanned from the sun, and she was wearing a light blue silk shirt that was buttoned down, and her long hair was let down. Troy was slightly amazed at how a Vietnamese woman's hair would remain so intact and perfect even with the sun and desert wind. She looked up, still bored, but as soon as she saw that he was American, her expression lightened up. She leapt up from her spot and leaned forward eagerly at Troy.

"One regular sized, please," he said in Vietnamese to the seller. She smiled at him, somewhat relieved that she didn't have to respond in English to him.

"$3,000," she replied sweetly. She set off to work as Troy watched with interest. The young woman went to the back and took out a fresh shoot of sugar cane and, with cautious, pressed it through a large machine that grounded out the juice conveniently into a bowl of ice. As Troy watched, about half a dozen Vietnamese children gathered around him, holding up raffle tickets and speaking over each other. Troy was used to this; being an American tourist in Saigon, this was all normal.

Most of these kids were too young to even be out in the streets. They should've either be at school or at home, and Troy felt sorry for them, knowing there had to be a reason they were here.

"Okay," he said, backing away a little. He took out his wallet and pulled out about $6,000, splitting it up. "Here you go." The children took the money.

"Thank you, sir," one child said in broken English. Troy chuckled to himself as they hurried off again, and he couldn't help but feel a little better inside. He turned back to the sugarcane girl as she was about to fill his cup with juice.

"Would you like a large cup?" she asked. "It's only $500 extra." Troy took a moment to think about.

"Alright, then." The sugarcane girl beamed and picked up a much larger cup and filled it. She snapped on the lid and handed it to him.

"$3,500," she said, and Troy gave her the money. She watched intentionally as he took his first sip. "Please enjoy the views and come again." Troy gave her a nod and then walked away, back into the hectic scenario of Saigon.

As he walked, he was constantly mobbed by ticket sellers. He tried to wave them away, but every now and then, especially when he stepped into the busiest region of the street, more people would appear. This began to irritate him, so Troy decided it was best to find shelter. He spotted a café nearby and slipped through the crowd and through the door.

Soft Vietnamese pop music played through the stereo in the cool atmosphere. Troy let out a puff and wiped his sweaty brow with the back of his hand, his wet hot face suddenly stinging as the cold conditioned air rushed to him. The shouting outside immediately silenced as soon as the door closed.

Troy looked around. Typically, he was being stared at. Teenage girls giggled and winked at him, whispering among themselves, while older people just went back to what they were doing after a while.

Troy was annoyed at this when he first came, but then he realized they were doing it simply because he was American. It wasn't that they were whispering things about him that he was really care about. Troy kept his eyes firmly ahead and walked over to a table where a grumpy-looking American girl was sitting. She looked up from her _che_.

"Where were you?" she hissed, pushing her wavy chocolate hair back. "I was waiting by myself for almost a hour." Troy bent down and kissed her cheek and sat himself opposite her.

"I got kinda lost," he explained. "Sorry, Gabby." Gabriella rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Next time can you _please_ come on time?" she said irritably. She looked around nervously. "I don't like it when people stare at me."

Gabriella had been uneasy about being out of place. Even though so far she had loved Vietnam, she simply couldn't get used to the staring and the whispering. She felt foreign, and having felt foreign before when she was in high school, this was not something she could work around like Troy did. Troy took a sip of her _che_.

"They're staring at you because you're beautiful," he said with a laugh. Gabriella merely raised an eyebrow and looked down at her watch. Troy started spooning the last of the sweet beans at the bottom of the glass, quite enjoying himself. Gabriella stood up and pushed her chair in.

"Come on," she said. Troy spooned some of the coconut milk and ice into his mouth.

"But I'm thirsty," he said, shrugging. Gabriella shook her head.

"I have to get back to the hotel and pack," she told him. "Kim says the bus leaves in two hours." Gabriella pulled out her wallet and headed to the counter. "Come on, Troy." Troy finished the _che_ quickly and followed her.

"Here you go," Gabriella said, handing the counter girl the money. "Keep the change." The counter girl beamed and took it. Gabriella walked out the door, not waiting for Troy, and called for a cyclo. One arrived almost immediately just as Troy came outside.

"No thanks," he said as Gabriella offered to call another one for him. He held up his camera. "I'll just take a few pictures by foot." Gabriella shrugged and climbed onto the cyclo.

"The QQ Hotel, please," she told the driver. She sat on the seat and crossed her legs as the driver began to pedal. Troy tagged along beside her and took photo after photo as they moved out of the busy street and into the port region. The sun was beginning to set, and it was a picture perfect view as it sank lower into the horizon, casting a beautiful orange aura onto the water. Troy clicked his camera again as Gabriella watched. She watched patiently for a little while, hoping he'd turn and start talking to her, but he didn't, seemingly too fascinated by everything around them. She crossed her arms.

"Tomorrow's our anniversary," she muttered, glancing at her feet. Troy continued to take pictures.

"Sorry, what?" he said distractedly. Gabriella sighed again.

"Tomorrow's our 7th anniversary," she said loudly. Troy snapped another photo.

"Yeah, I know," he said light-heartedly. He finally finished with the camera and walked along with the cyclo. Gabriella unfolded her arms and looked at him.

"I'm going to get back tomorrow morning," she told him. "Around noon." Troy nodded.

"Wouldn't it be more beneficial if you came back later than that?" he said, frowning. "You'd have more time to do things that way."

"I'm just going downtown to do some shopping with Taylor and Kim," Gabriella explained. "It's about an hour's drive but Kim says we can stay with her parents." Troy nodded again and set his gaze ahead. He held his tongue, because knowing his fiancée well enough, he was sure that wasn't all she was going to say. Ten seconds, tops, before she announces something to him that he should have known a day ago.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you," Gabriella said finally. "I've reserved a place for a party tomorrow." There it was.

"A party?!" Troy exclaimed. He stopped and stared at her, dumbfounded. The cyclo rode off and Troy was forced to run after it. "What party?"

"It's sorta our engagement party," Gabriella said matter-of-factly as she leaned over the side to look at him. "It'll just be us four with a few of Kim and Thuy's friends. I told them it was at 4pm tomorrow, so it's plenty of time for us to get ready." Troy sighed with frustration.

He had told Gabriella time and time again he didn't want to make a fuss over their engagement. He hated that kind of stuff; lots of people he didn't know who didn't know anything about him making a big deal and loud noises. He had always hated going to parties, but Troy knew in his heart that this occasion was very special to Gabriella. Most of the parties she went to were special occasions for her. Troy sighed again.

"Alright," he said at last. "But you can't make this a big deal."

"Not make it a big deal?" Gabriella repeated with disbelief. "But it's our engagement! We're going to get married, Troy!" Troy winced at the word 'marriage'.

"Okay, okay," he said defensively. "I'll let you go wild." He looked up at her. "But promise me you won't make me sing again." Gabriella beamed.

"Okay, I promise," she said sweetly. Troy's face relaxed a little. He glanced back at the port and automatically took out the camera to take his mind off the matter. Gabriella leaned back and folded her hands neatly on her lap, her happy expression fading into neutral. After a while, her brown eyes shifted back to Troy. She tapped his shoulder and sat back casually.

"Do you love me, Troy?" she asked. Troy looked at her strangely.

"Of course I love you," he said like it was the most obvious answer in the world. Gabriella didn't look at him and flicked her hair.

"Well, _I_ love you more," she said carelessly. Troy frowned.

"No, I love you more!"

"_I_ love you more."

"_I_ love you more!"

"_I_ love you more!"

"_I_ love you more!"

It went on for a while until Troy began to feel tired. He picked up his camera again.

"If you say so," he muttered, and with that he took another picture. Gabriella sat up abruptly and her expressionless face screwed up in a frown.

"What?" she said. "So you love me less than I love you?" Troy closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

"No," he said slowly. "I love you more, alright?" Gabriella relaxed again after these words.

"Well, I love you more," she said yet again.

"No, _I_ love you more," Troy said.

"_I _love you more."

"_I_ love you more."

"_I_ love you more."

"_I_ love you more."

"_I_ love you more."

"_I_ love you more..."

… all the way home.

* * *

"Kim, are you done with your bag?" 

A Vietnamese woman was leaning over a set of clothes placed on the bed when she heard Taylor's voice.

Apart from her American clothes and style, Kim was pretty much like any other girl living in Saigon. She was petite and slender, graceful with a girlish charm, sophistication and pride… and along with vast knowledge and a personal bond to her motherland, she was in every way had everything a Vietnamese girl could want. Kim folded the clothes and lifted them off the bed.

"Yeah, I'm done!" she shouted to the next room. "Are you?"

"Yeah!" Taylor answered back. She popped her head into the room. "Where d'you think Gabby is?" Kim shrugged.

"Don't worry, she'll make it," she said reassuringly.

Taylor was quite new to everything around her in Vietnam, and although she was excited to go shopping and sightseeing, she felt safer when she was around either Gabriella or Kim or Chad. Taylor heaved her own backpack over her shoulder and stepped into the room.

"Can we trust the boys to behave on their own?" Kim asked as she zipped up her bag. She wasn't too sure about leaving her husband on his own.

As handsome and faithful Thuy was, leaving him alone with Chad and Troy wasn't the best idea. All the boys loved to wonder off and get into trouble together, and usually it was the girls who would get them out of it. Who would save them if they got in trouble tonight? Themselves?

Taylor didn't even need to answer.

"Ready yet, girls?" Thuy's voice called out from downstairs. He appeared with Chad behind him at the door.

"Gabby isn't here yet," Kim told him as he took her bag for her. She glanced out the window; it was getting dark.

They heard the front door open and the sound of Gabriella's voice.

"Okay, guys," she called out. "Just give me a minute to pack." She gave a wave of her hand as she appeared at the door and went into the bathroom, splashing her hot face with some water.

"Need some help?" Taylor said, heading to her. Kim followed, brushing past Troy as he stepped into the room after her, looking very tired. Thuy let out a chuckle.

"Been arguing with the wife?" he asked. Troy collapsed onto Kim's bed and shot him a glare.

"You weren't there," he snapped. Chad and Thuy both sniggered.

The girls helped Gabriella pack her bag, which took about five minutes. The sky outside darkened as the hot sun slowly disappeared, to be replaced by the garish neon lights of clubs and bars. Saigon was still alive, even at night, and Thuy and Chad only knew so well.

"Okay," Gabriella said as she finally finished everything. She walked up to Troy and straightened the collar of his shirt. "Now, can you promise me you guys won't get into trouble while we're away?"

"Yeah," Taylor muttered as she glanced at Chad. "Don't go anyway, because our phones don't work here…" She waved it at Chad to annoy him. "… so if you end up in the gutter somewhere, we might never find you." Chad held her firmly by the shoulders and suddenly looked serious.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head off," he said with an air of superiority. "We'll be fine." Gabriella sighed to herself as Troy wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm counting on you," she said sternly. "You better be here when the party starts at 4." Troy nodded nonchalantly and kissed her forehead.

"I promise I'll be here," he told her. He nodded reassuringly. "I mean, come on." He exchanged a look with Chad and Thuy. "We're grown men. We can take care of ourselves." Gabriella still seemed unconvinced.

"Remember, no drinking," she said warningly, shaking a finger at him. Troy nodded.

"No drinking," he repeated.

A car honked loudly outside. Kim peered through the curtains.

"It's our ride," she told everyone. The girls quickly grabbed their bags, gave each of their partners a kiss and hurried out the door.

"Don't do anything stupid!" Gabriella called out again.

Troy, Thuy and Chad sat themselves rigidly on the bed as they listened to the sound of the taxi driving away. None of them moved, making sure that it wasn't a false alarm or if Gabriella decided again to call out something. Once sure that the coast was clear and their wives were gone, they relaxed.

Troy collapsed back onto the bed and let out a deep sigh, while Thuy and Chad jumped to their feet. Troy lied there for a while with his eyes closed, but eventually opened one to see his two best friends looking down on his with suspicious-looking grins.

"What are you doing?" he asked. Thuy and Chad just kept smiling, and the creepiness was giving Troy a very bad feeling. He slowly sat up. "What are you doing?"

"The girls are gone," Thuy said happily, rubbing his hands together. "So, come on!" He grabbed Troy's arm and tried to pull him up. "Come on, I know this really good bar we can go to." Troy abruptly pulled his arm out of Thuy's grip.

"What?!" he exclaimed. He glanced at Chad for help, but it looked like he was in on the plan as well. Troy stood up. "You guys, I promised my fiancée I wouldn't drink." Chad rolled his eyes.

"One drink, buddy," he said, shrugging. "One drink never harmed anyone." Troy held up his hands defensively as his two friends approached him again.

"I am not drinking, guys."

Troy had never been the dominant type. He couldn't hold up an argument, and he would always succumb to someone else's suggestion. Knowing Troy for years now, Thuy and Chad knew exactly how to persuade him into doing something. Troy tired to argue back, using reasons such as morality and trust and honesty to his future wife, but Thuy and Chad fought back with reasons such as having a good time, their wives being away and never finding out, and exploring the night life of a marvellous city. Eventually, Troy succumbed.

Each taking a reluctant Troy's arm, Thuy and Chad called a taxi and sat him right between them so he wouldn't be able to escape.

"I'm warning you," Troy said for the fifth time. "I'll tag along, but I'm not drinking."

They entered a club a few yards away from the hotel, and immediately Troy was able to recognize the familiar atmosphere. Everything was dark with the disco lights being the only source of light in the room. Dance music played loudly all around and men and women were talking indistinctly to one another. Troy liked the room to be like this; no one could tell straight away that he was American so he wouldn't draw as much attention to himself as he did in daylight. They made their way to the bar and each man sat down at the stools.

"Three beers, thanks," Thuy said in Vietnamese to the bartender. Troy ripped his eyes from the scene and looked wildly around at Thuy.

"Hey, I said I wasn't drinking!" he said frantically. Chad just placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Dude," he said, looking serious. "Do you think we'd let you get drunk one day before your engagement party?"

"Yes," Troy replied flatly. Thuy shrugged. The bartender placed three mugs of beer in front of them. They were really big. Chad wrapped his arm around Troy's shoulder and leaned in close to speak in his ear.

"Listen, Troy," he said. "Tomorrow is the first big step in your life. The first step is officially putting the ring on Gabriella's finger. The next step is getting ready for the wedding, and the last step is marrying her." A sick feeling struck Troy in the stomach as he began to think about it. Thuy pushed the mug of beer in front of Troy, who was now watching it with hunger. Both his friends noticed.

"This is your last night as a bachelor," Thuy remarked. "And then you'll be attached to one woman for the rest of your life. Like me." Thuy held out his right hand so they could see his wedding ring.

"You'll have to cut your hair the way she wants it," Chad said, putting one hand on his beloved afro and the other on Thuy's neat crop. "You're gonna have a curfew and buy her presents for every occasion. You can't forget dates, you can _never _take that goddamn ring off, and you'll have to be the first to apologize for everything, even if it isn't your fault—"

"Okay, I get it!" Troy shouted. Without hesitation, he grabbed the beer and drained it. Chad and Thuy dropped their fake concerned looks and smirked at each other. They were slightly surprised at how fast Troy was finishing his drink, but they knew the topic of marriage had scared him ever since. Troy exhaled sharply and slammed the empty beer mug onto the counter.

"That's my boy," Chad said proudly. Troy panted and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He actually felt a lot better, a load had been taken off his head just now, and the beer tasted good too. He grinned and hiccuped.

"You were right," he said with a laugh. "I_ should_ be living out my last day." He turned to Thuy's mug and drank it as well. Thuy's smile disappeared.

"Uh, Troy," he said cautiously. He tried to take the beer away, but Troy had already finished it. "Whoa, dude…" Troy simply laughed and put an arm over each of his two friends.

"You guys…" he slurred. "… are the greatest… friends in the world."

And that was all he could remember.

* * *

**Note: I'm not quite sure whether the amount Vietnamese money is correct or not. I'm using a stranger converter...**


	2. Ticket To Ride

Everything was really dark.

Troy's head really hurt. He was swimming in darkness, and his eyelids felt like they weighed a tonne and he couldn't open them. Wherever he was lying, it was really uncomfortable. He felt a breeze constantly whipping again his face, and it was stinging his skin. The smell of petroleum and fumes filled his nostrils, making his senses tingle just a bit. He cringed his nose and shifted a little, wherever he was lying, turning away from whatever it was that was around him and decided he was having some kind of weird dream. Any moment now, he expected to hear his alarm go off. Any second now.

"RIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!"

Troy jolted and his eyes flew open. He was on his back and quickly sat up, looking around anywhere for where the alarm was. It kept ringing, and loudly too, and he realized an alarm clock had been taped to his forehead. He hastily pulled it off and switched off the buzzer. Once it silenced, he was able to breathe again and his heart slowly even out. He felt drowsy as the adrenaline rush passed, but for the first time, he noticed he wasn't in a familiar area, and there was a Vietnamese woman sitting opposite him.

She was trying not to smile, and touched her ear to indicate to him. Troy stared at her confusedly and touched his own ear, pulling off the last bit of tape. He looked around, his eyes flickering.

"Where am I?" he murmured in English. He didn't expect the girl to answer him, but that was a question he just to had ask, anyone or anything right at that moment. The girl didn't look up from her book.

"You're on a train," she answered back in English. Troy sat up abruptly, immediately awake at her words.

"What did you just say?!" he exclaimed. The girl finally looked at him.

"You're on a train," she said again calmly. Troy felt his pulse pick up and he looked wildly around.

He was indeed on the train. It had strict rows of tall seats which hide each passenger behind them, all in a boring grey in a straight line along a long narrow aisle that ran through the middle of the carriage. The lights flickered every time the train would jolt, and it those split seconds the light from outside would take its place. The light was dull and distant, overshadowed whenever it would pass one of the palm trees on either side of the railroad, casting silhouettes into the carriage. And the train was was moving fast.

All the blood rushed to his head. Troy threw himself at the girl's feet as panic overtook fibre of his body.

"A train?!" he exclaimed. He grabbed the girl's legs. She dropped her book.

"Hey!" she shouted. She grabbed his hands and tried to pull him off. Troy didn't even notice her attempt.

"What… what am I doing on a train?!" he demanded.

"Why are you holding my feet?!" she shot back. Troy fell to his knees and pulled her legs tightly to him, as if it were the robes of God.

"What am I doing on a train?!" He didn't care that he was repeating himself.

"You were sleeping!" she said in frustration.

"Sleeping?!" he said incredulously. "Why am I sleeping on the train?!" He looked out the window. The scene did not look familiar at all. "My fiancée's coming back tomorrow for our anniversary and engagement party!" The girl stopped pulling and took a deep breath.

"Today," she corrected him calmly. Troy looked back at her, forgetting he was still holding onto her. He suddenly realized she was speaking English to him.

"What?" he blurted. The girl sighed.

"It's past midnight," she told him matter-of-factly, holding out her watch. "Your fiancée is coming back today. Your friends told me."

Troy had stared at her with the same dubious look until she mentioned his friends. His confusion changed into rage, and he flushed a deep red.

"Those bastards!" he shouted. Troy glanced down the aisle when the girl again tried to push out of his grip.

"Let go!" she said angrily, pulling his hands off. "You're American! Do you want to draw more attention than you already are?!"

Troy's panic subsided when he noticed many of the people on the train were looking at him. The girl was right, and he let go and returned to the opposite seat. He sat awkwardly in his seat, shifting his eyes around for any hiding Americans.

"Where are they?" he said in a low voice.

"I don't know," the girl said with a shrug. Troy glared at her.

"How can you not know?" The girl placed down her book and looked at him with hard eyes.

"Do we know each other?" she asked.

She was a very beautiful woman, possibly in her mid- twenties, Troy noted, from her wide English vocabulary. Her black hair was tied in a ponytail, hanging down the side of her long slender neck. Her lips had a healthy pink hue that pursed together whenever she would look at him, and from under her thick eyelashes her dark eyes would then speak. Troy felt a little intimidated by them, and for some strange reason, he felt as if he were to blink, she would turn into some kind of monster and rip his organs out.

Her eyes traveled down for a split second before she looked back at his face. Troy could tell she was trying to keep a straight face, but why?

For the first time, he suddenly realized that his legs felt particularly cooler for some reason. A thought hit him, a horrible thought. He slowly followed the girl's gaze and looked down at his lap.

The night before he had wore grey trousers. Now… all he had on were the _Dr Seuss _boxers Gabriella had got him last Christmas.

His face turned red again and Troy let out a cry. He automatically pulled his shirt further down to cover his boxers.

"Where are my pants?!" he squeaked. The girl just stared with a bored expression.

"Don't you remember anything?" she asked.

"Remember what?" Troy asked, getting increasingly impatient. She sighed and leaned forward on her seat, resting her cheek on her hand.

"You must have drunk too much," she told him. The girl shook her head with disapproval and ran a hand through her hair. "What a waste of money."

She watched with mild interest as Troy struggled to recollect what the hell had happened last night. He remembered going into a bar with Thuy and Chad… but after that it was all blank. Troy took a deep breath and put his hand to his forehead, trying to go back in his mind. But he couldn't.

"I don't remember anything," he muttered to himself. He looked at the girl with widened eyes. "I swear… I really can't remember." He suddenly felt panicky and automatically patted all his pockets. "Where's my wallet?" He kept staring at her for some much-needed answers, but she said nothing. "Where's my wallet? Where's my passport?" He reached into every pocket or opening in his shirt, but he couldn't find his wallet anywhere. He hand touched a piece of paper in his breast pocket and his pulled it out. It was a train ticket.

"One-way ticket?!" he read. He looked horrified. "How am I supposed to get back to Saigon?!" The girl merely shrugged and casually went back to her book. Troy didn't even seem to care for her rudeness anymore.

"Co, toi nang ni co…" he pleaded. "_Miss, I'm begging you…_" The Vietnamese words caught the girl's attention. Troy put his hands together. "Please tell me what's going on." She shrugged again.

"How would I know?"

"You don't know?!" Troy said with a bitter laugh. "You speak English and you don't know?" The girl glowered. "Why are you even here?!"

"Your friends insisted in buying my ticket because I could speak English," she told him. "They asked me to look after you. It was convenient so I agreed."

"Convenient?!" Troy spat. "How?! I don't even know where I'm going!" The girl just stared at him in a sombre manner.

She was being very patient; he was bullying her, after all. Troy knew he couldn't just vent all his anger on a stranger, and he probably made himself look really bad if he was yelling at a Vietnamese girl. He cleared his throat and recomposed himself.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, genuinely feeling bad. He fidgeted the ticket in his hands. "I'm not always like this. It's just…" He emitted a weary sigh. "… I'm having a bad day." He took a moment before he looked back into those dark emotionless eyes. "Can… can I ask where you're going?" The girl seemed less offended enough to reply.

"Phan Thiet," she said. Something clicked in Troy's mind; he had seen Phan Thiet on the map. It was located north-east of Saigon somewhere.

"How far away is Phan Thiet from Saigon?" he asked timidly. She turned a page.

"About 98 miles," the girl told him.

"98 miles?!!!"

Troy almost had another heart attack. He fell back onto his seat, defeated.

The train moved noisily along the rails and jolted every now and then as images of Gabriella holding a rolling pin and smashing a picture of him filled Troy's head. It seemed to play like a film as he stared deadpan at the white ceiling.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," he said over and over again. "This is not good."

That drink, that _one stupid drink_ started it all. Why was he so weak to persuasion? Why were his friends such idiots??

The girl set her book aside for the last time and watched Troy ponder to himself. He was starting to look pathetic, and she was starting to feel sorry for him. The girl smirked and leaned forward at him.

"Give me your hand," she said. Troy snapped out of his trance and looked at her with a dubious expression.

"What?"

"Your left hand," she urged. Troy still felt a little uncertain, but nonetheless he obeyed.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she took it in her hands.

"I'm reading your palm," she said. She examined it closely, running her finger gently through the middle. She screwed up her forehead. "Hmmm… your love line is very long." Troy frowned.

"What does that mean?" he asked, intrigued. The girl ran her finger on the line and looked up at him with a smile.

"It means you'll get back to Saigon on time," she told him. "You and your fiancée will have a wonderful vacation and then you'll go back to America and live happily ever after." She let go of his hand so he could look at it for himself. She looked at her own hand and frowned at it. "Unless…" Troy froze; he didn't like the sound of that.

"Unless what?" he said nervously. The girl kept staring at her hand.

"Unless it's your health line," she said lightly, leaning back on her seat. "I usually get those two lines mixed up." She smiled at him as he again looked uneasy. Suddenly, her face changed as something outside caught her eye. Troy looked out the window as well, and a grin spread across his face.

In the distance, standing on the platform were the shadowy figures of Chad and Thuy, and they were holding up the sign 'WAKE UP, SLEEPHEAD!!' Troy let out a triumphant laugh and turned back around to the girl.

"Those bastards!" he laughed. "They're waiting for me up there!" She smiled as well. "Holy crap! They tricked me!" He looked back at his two friends, a devious plan unfolding as he watched them. "Oh… I'll get them…" Troy sat back on his seat. He smiled again at the girl, feeling much better.

"Can you do me a favour?" he asked. "When the train stops, I'll sneak out. When they come up to find me, tell them I was so scared, I jumped out the window."

Now let's see who would freak out when that happens. _Those bastards…_

The train kept it speed however. It went on and on until Troy saw Thuy and Chad's heads pass him by, and only then did his smile disappear.

Thuy and Chad stood there and watched the train move away. Chad lowered the sign and the two just stared, completely bewildered, after it.

"Crap," was all they could say.

Troy leapt off his seat.

"Why isn't the train stopping?" he exclaimed. He stood up and looked around. Everyone was still sitting down. He began to panic again.

"Hey!!" he shouted in Vietnamese. "Stop the train!! Someone stop the train!!" He looked back at the girl opposite him and she was trying hard not to laugh. Trying quite unsuccessfully.

"Okay," she said shakily. "You can jump out the window now if you want." She giggled. Troy turned his attention back to her and his expression became stony._ She had known about it_... The girl shook her head as she trembled with laughter.

"They put you on the wrong train," she choked. "This one doesn't stop at stations." Troy's eyes were slits, and he felt his fist close up.

"You think it's funny, huh?" he said hotly. She kept laughing. "Go ahead!! Laugh! Laugh at the pathetic American who doesn't have any pants!!!"

"I'm sorry!" she gasped, unable to control herself. "I… I just can't hold it in anymore!!!" Troy watched her a little while longer, feeling his face turn red, and went back to his seat in a sulk.

"I can't imagine you on a plane!" the girl said. Troy stared at her menacingly, his arms folded across his chest. She laughed. "Look at yourself." Troy rolled his eyes and stood up. He had enough.

"Leave me alone," he grumbled. Awkwardly, since he was in his boxer shorts, he made his way down the aisle, not really knowing what else to do.

He couldn't ask them to stop the train, but he couldn't just sit there and let a girl abuse him any longer. The train jolted a little more but Troy kept himself steady. The girl sighed after her laughing fit and felt a little bad. She stood up and followed him.

"Hey!" she said. Troy glanced at her over his shoulder. She pulled her handbag over her shoulder and resumed her neutral stare at him. "I want you to know I had nothing to do with this." Troy scoffed loudly.

"If it wasn't for you," he said harshly. "They never would've even put me on this train!"

"How was I supposed to know they'd put you on the wrong train?!" she said defensively. Troy rolled his eyes, like it was so obvious.

"Couldn't you tell they were stupid?!?"

"It's not my fault your friends are stupid!" she spat. Having enough of this, she shot him and turned at her heel back to her seat, leaving Troy just standing their in his underwear.

Humiliation again crashed down on him; he helpless to what was happening to him, and a girl was making him feel bad. Troy gathered as much of what was left of his pride.

"Fine!" he called after the girl. "What good can a call girl like you do anyway?"

That hit a nerve.

The girl got up from her seat, and stormed over to him.

"What did you just call me?!" she hissed, grabbing the collar of his shirt. "YOU WATCH YOUR MOUTH, AMERICAN!!!" Gosh was she strong too. Troy was scared; he could've sworn he saw those black eyes glow green. The girl violently threw him back down and dusted herself. Uttering a soft "hmmph!" she went back to her seat again, and Troy felt ten times more humiliated than he did five seconds ago.

* * *

A motorbike zoomed down the dark road, past the palm trees on the grainy path of rocks and soil. 

Thuy sat in front and handled the bike while Chad sat behind him with a map in his hands and a flashlight in his mouth. Thuy stopped the bike at the end of the road and looked around as Chad jumped off.

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Thuy asked. Chad nodded, the flashlight still in his mouth and holding out the map in front of him.

"Positive," he mumbled. Thuy looked around again.

"That train was supposed to head to MM Station," he muttered, glancing at his watch. "We have to get there before Troy does, or else he'll kill us." Chad frowned as he examined the map.

"Is MM Station located East or West?" he asked.

"West," Thuy replied, still not looking at him. Chad spat out the flashlight.

"Then why have we been driving East?" he asked naively.

Thuy scowled.


	3. Help!

Ah, the definition of fun.

Fun was exciting, fun was entertaining. Fun was something that gave you that warm positive feeling inside that assured you everything was going to be okay and that you were the one on top. Fun was something you should have when you were on vacation in a beautiful tropical country with your closest friends and your fiancée.

What wasn't fun, however, was being stuck almost 100 miles from where you were supposed to be with no form of communication to let anyone know where you were, and without any pants, for that matter.

The train hissed and came to a halt as it reached MM Station. A cloud of steam escaped onto the platform and the automatic doors all opened at once. The passengers stepped down nonchalantly down from the train, one by one. Within the sea of ebony hair, one of deep dark brown nervously hovered down off the steps, over the yellow safety line and into the middle of nowhere.

Troy stood and looked uncertainly around. Not only did he feel helpless and half naked, but he literally was. He peered down the railroad as the train slowly gained speed again and rode off, taking with it his last strand of hope.

Troy whimpered, still clutching his shirt and pulling it down over his boxers as far as he could. No, he wasn't going to cry; it would take at least a week before he did that. But not only was he annoyed, cold and humiliated beyond recognition, he didn't have his wallet or his passport with him. That meant he had to battle the elements and find and way back by himself. And it was all because of two idiots by the name of Chad and Thuy. Oh, Troy would make them pay…

The Vietnamese girl from before glanced at him from the exit door.

He looked so pathetic, so defenseless and sad. The stupid conscience of hers gnawing at brain, giving her no chance of ignoring it. People were beginning to leave the platform and he was the only one left standing there. Great, now she was feeling sorry for him again. She let out a sigh and headed towards him, reaching into her shoulder pouch.

"Hey," she said softly. Troy turned around to her. She sighed again and held out some money. "Here's some change. Call home." Troy didn't take it. Instead, he crossed his arms.

"It's fine," he said tersely, giving her a fake smile. The girl glared and withdrew her hand. "My friends will come and get me."

"You mean the friends who put you on the wrong train?" she said lightly. She held out the money again, but Troy narrowed his eyes.

"You think I can only get back to Saigon with your help?" he scoffed. He turned his back to her. "Well, _sor-ry_."

It was her fault as well. Actually, it was more her fault than his. She was the reason he was put on that train, because she didn't say anything to those idiots. The girl seemed to read his thoughts, and her momentary gentleness hardened once again. She threw the money onto the ground in front of him.

"Fine!" she huffed, pulling her bag strap up more onto her shoulder. "Why should I help an arrogant American like you anyway?!" She stormed off.

"I'd rather have help from a grizzly bear," Troy mumbled under his breath. The girl stopped in her tracks.

"What did you just say?!" she snarled. The outburst made Troy jump, and her piercing eyes triggered sweat beads to form on his forehead.

"I… said…I…" he stuttered. Troy then managed a grin. "Uh… I said you have really nice hair."

The girl huffed again and preened her ponytail.

"Do you have any idea how much this would cost?" she said with a note of pride. She gave him one last dirty look. "What your own hairline!!" She turned at her heel and marched off. Troy watched her with intense dislike.

What did she know? He didn't need her pity, he could get home by himself, thank you very much. He didn't need some peasant girl telling him what he needed to do. Troy looked back down the track.

But it was really dark now, and there was no sign of Thuy or Chad anywhere. The horrible feeling of impotence welled up once again and he suddenly small. Troy glanced at the exit to see if the girl was there, down at the change she dropped, and then back again just in case. Then, very slowly, he bent down and swiped it.

$400. Wow, she was serious when she said it was just change. Knowing there was nothing else to do, the pantsless American dragged himself into the train station, where there would be someone in there to sell him a ticket back to Saigon.

Not much hope, but what else could he do?

Fortunately for him, the station was practically empty at this time of night. There was an old man sitting on the seats reading the newspaper, but that was it. He looked up, naturally, as Troy tensely walked in. His eyes reverted down to the Dr Seuss boxers, then back up to his American face, then back down, and so on. Troy gave him a stiff nod, and to avoid being laughed at yet again, he went over to the ticket stand.

A lazy-looking woman in a trucker's uniform sat with her feet on the table, her jaw going at some poor piece of gum and her beady black eyes darting from side to side of a folded magazine in her chubby hand. Troy felt a lump in his throat as he stepped in front of the stall window. He cleared his throat.

The ticket lady looked up for a second and then back to her magazine, but then her brain suddenly registered that he was an American and she jumped up from her seat. She beamed.

"Hello," she said warmly. Troy smiled weakly at her.

"A one way ticket to Saigon, please," he said in Vietnamese. The ticket lady's smile widened, like everyone else, she seemed glad she didn't have to speak any English. She typed up something on her computer and a ticket popped. She tore it from the register and laid it down on the counter in front of Troy. She grinned again.

"$52,000, sir," she said. Troy stared down at it for a second. He then let out a nervous laugh and rubbed his hands together.

"Let me tell you a funny story," he said, still laughing. "Well… I came here from America, and I was supposed to be in Saigon right now, but my friends kinda pulled a prank on me and put me on the wrong train." He laughed again. The woman just stared with a faint smile. "Yeah, I know. But here's the funny part." He rubbed his hands again. "I don't actually have any money with me to pay for the ticket." The woman's smile faded completely, making Troy feel even more anxious. "So… so I was wondering if you could give that ticket… for free?"

"Free?!" the woman repeated. All the warmth from her voice and expression disappeared and she took back the ticket. Troy raised an eyebrow.

What was she expecting? A tip? He leaned onto the counter.

"Look," he said curtly. "I don't know if you know, but I don't have any pants on right now." He indicated it to her. "So me being here is practically your company's fault. If you don't want to have a lawsuit where an American man came to Vietnam and was put on the wrong train without his knowledge when he was so obviously helpless to what was happening to him, and where no one would even speak out about it…" He pointed at his boxers again. "… I say you give me a ticket RIGHT NOW!!!"

"You're crazy!!" the ticket lady shouted. Troy heard a snort of laughter behind him from the old man. "Get out of here before I call the police and maybe they'll take you back to some American prison!" And as soon as she said that, the ticket lady picked up the phone and began dialing. Troy knew that was his cue to run for it.

He rushed outside the station. It wasn't any better out there either. The street lights were lined up both sides of the wide granite road from the station with streaks of green and yellow grass growing along the cracks of the concrete. The big world scared him.

Troy knew there was only one thing he could do. Phone for help.

Gabriella had given him Kim's number for emergencies, and right now it was definitely an emergency. He felt slightly scared, because he did promise his fiancée that he wouldn't drink and wouldn't get drunk and wouldn't get in trouble, all of which led him straight into a pit that Gabriella had so accurately predicted. She was likely to kill him, but now he had no choice.

His hand trembled as he picked up the receiver. Flashes of what might happen to him when the females disemboweled him filled Troy's mind as he slowly pressed the numbers. He was shaking all over as it rang, and he almost wished it would keep going on and no one would pick up, but…

"Hello?" came Gabriella's sleepy voice. Troy clenched onto the receiver and squeezed shut his eyes.

"Hi, honey," he said with fake merriness. Gabriella groaned.

"Troy?" she mumbled. Troy laughed forcefully.

"Yeah, it's me," he said. "Uh… were you sleeping?"

"It's three o'clock in the morning," she said softly. "What else would I be doing?" Troy laughed again.

"Right," he said quickly, realizing it himself. "Sorry." He heard Gabriella yawn as she turned on her bed.

"Hey, I called you a few hours ago," she told him. "Why didn't you pick up?"

Troy felt his blood freeze and he began to think fast.

"Well… uh… I was…. I was…" _Nothing! Stupid brain!!  
_

"I guess you must have been asleep," Gabriella suggested, shrugging.

"Uh… oh, yeah!" Troy exclaimed, pretending that it was the most obvious answer.

"You should get some rest," Gabriella said concernedly. "I've got a lot planned tomorrow, and I don't want you to be tired. Why are you calling me anyway?"

Troy knew he could stay silent for too long. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to just tell her straight out.

"I called you because… because…" Troy sighed heavily and squeezed his eyes shut again.

"Because… I love you more." He blindly threw his fist against the brick wall and smashed it into the hard surface. His jaw dropped but he restrained himself from letting out a scream of agony. He heard Gabriella giggle on the other end of the line.

"No," she said, now very much awake. She giggled again. "I love you more."

* * *

There was nowhere left to go. 

Troy had used up almost half the money the Vietnamese girl had given him and now he was desperate.

The line of taxis beside the station was plentiful, and the drivers were already inside at the wheel. Troy pulled his shirt again down over his boxers, it being a habit now, and crept over to the nearest taxi. The driver had his hat down over his eyes and was snoring loudly. Troy took a deep, deep breath and knocked on the front screen. The driver let out a snort and peered up.

"What is it?" he snapped in Vietnamese. Troy knew he probably didn't look so American in the darkness, but he didn't have time to correct the guy.

"Are you working?" he asked hastily. The driver glanced at the other cars, wondering why he had to be the one to be woken.

"Yeah," he mumbled. He straightened up his hat, and stared back at Troy. He didn't seem to care he was American, since he was speaking Vietnamese. "Where do you want to go?"

"Saigon," Troy said simply. The driver stared blankly for a moment before his eyebrows furrowed together.

"Huh?" he grunted. Troy rolled his eyes; he didn't have time for this.

"I said Saigon," he said forcefully. It still didn't seem to register.

"Huh?" the driver said again.

"Are you deaf?!" Troy said irritably. "I said I want to go to Saigon." The driver merely clicked his tongue and leaned back down in his chair.

"No one would drive to Saigon!" he said. "That's just crazy." He pulled down his hat over his eyes again and resumed his nap.

"I'll pay you double!" Troy said desperately. He was getting agitated at this. He had less than 12 hours to get back. The driver pulled his hat back up and sat up from his chair.

"Double?" he repeated. His eyes widened suggestively.

And the plan worked. Troy was let into the taxi and then took off.

It was a very bumpy ride. Not only was the road jagged enough, it was going slow as well. The fumes from the engine made Troy woozy and sleepy at the same time. The road seemed to go on forever, and since the driver refused to talk or anything, it seemed like forever as well.

Eventually, Troy's eyes couldn't take it anymore, after an hour or so. The seat was rock-hard and smelled of gasoline, but Troy managed to fall limp against it.

He didn't know how long he was out, but he felt as if his hair had grown a little. The dream, or nightmare, that was swimming inside his head was the same over and over again. Gabriella was a giant and his was a little ant running away from her as she stomped and crushed buildings with her feet. She roared and grabbed the Empire State Building like a sword and pounded it onto the ground, missing Troy by inches as he leapt out of the way. Sirens rang throughout the cities and buildings burst into flames as the city became consumed by fire. Troy began to cough as the intoxicating smoke filled his lungs.

"No…" he murmured. "Honey, please don't kill me… it was all their fault… those two bastards... I'm innocent…" Troy coughed again. He opened one eye, realizing the hard feel of his passenger seat had returned by the realistic aching in his back. Troy coughed again, and only then did he see that there was really smoke in the taxi.

"Arghh!" he shrieked. Not thinking twice, he pushed the door open and jumped out of the car. The driver was bending over the engine.

"You want to kill me?!" Troy shouted, rubbing his throat and inhaling as much natural air as he could. The driver glared at him.

"Why?" he asked sardonically. "How much money have you got?" Troy carefully avoided this topic.

"Why are you blowing up the car?" he demanded. The driver rolled his eyes.

"It's smoking," he told him in a calm voice.

"Well, that means it'll blow up soon!" Troy piped.

"The engine's overheated and that's why it's smoking!" the driver said exasperatedly. Troy nodded hard.

"Yeah!" he said in a high-pitched voice, pointing repeatedly at it. "And then it'll explode!!" The driver slammed down his hands in annoyance.

"I actually wish it _would _blow up!!" he snapped. "NOW SHUT UP AND LET ME FIX IT!!!"

Troy bit his lip and went quiet. He stood back and watched the driver for a little while.

"When will you finish?" he asked timidly.

"When the engine starts again," he replied curtly. Troy frowned and looked earnestly over the driver's shoulder.

"Why did it heat up?" he asked. The driver looked at him and scratched his head.

"Why?" he asked back. Troy shrugged, growing impatient again.

"I don't know!" he said in disbelief. "I'm asking you!!" The driver sighed.

"It needs water," he said matter-of-factly. He stared at Troy, hoping he would understand what he really meant, but Troy didn't seem to get it. The driver rolled his eyes and lowered his voice. "It needs… you know…" Troy continued to look dubious, but then it hit him.

"Oh, jeez," he muttered under his breath.

He couldn't believe what he was doing. The only good thing that came out of this experience was that there was no one, besides the driver, around to actually see him do it. The smoke began to gradually clear, and somehow Troy ended up feeling thankful, not only that they were back on the road, but he didn't need a bathroom break anymore either.

The buildings disappeared and Troy knew he they were heading towards the country, and there were definitely no lavatories along this route.

* * *

Chad and Thuy found themselves once again looking at the map. 

Thuy paced up and down the gravely sidewalk as Chad looked at the routes and roads again with the flashlight in his mouth. Even though Thuy knew Saigon better than Chad, he knew no less when it came to outside the city, and they would take turns in trying to decide where to go, no matter what the risk.

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Thuy asked, constantly checking his watch.

"100 percent," Chad mumbled through the flashlight. Thuy stopped pacing.

"If you're so sure then why are you still looking at the map??"

"I'm looking for the railroad."

"The railroad?" Thuy said incredulously. Chad nodded. "Are you planning to stop the train with the bike??!"

"No!" Chad said, taking the flashlight out of his mouth. "The map says this is the station, but I can't see any railroad tracks." He glanced around at the area. "Hmmmm…."

There were no tracks anywhere, but they were on a platform. Thuy looked behind them and spotted a sign. His jaw twitched slightly as he read it, and unable to take it anymore, he seized the map from Chad's grip and grabbed the bike.

"This is the last time I let you decide where to go!" he said hotly. He took the motorbike, mumbling to himself. "My wife is going to murder me..." He hopped onto the seat, revved the engine and without even waiting for Chad, he took off. Chad was forced to run after him, but before he did, he too saw the sign, which the primary noun was in English, much to his dismay.

_CHAM XE BUS_ (Bus Station)

* * *

Troy and the taxi driver were on the road again. Troy had his cheek pressed again his cheek, staring out the window in a bored manner. They were going incredibly slowly. 

"Hey, buffalo!" Troy called out as they passed one. Or rather, it passed them. "You want a race?" He looked round to the driver. "Want to race the buffalo?" The driver said nothing and kept his eyes on the road. Troy sighed. "What time do you think we'll reach Saigon?"

"Around 3 or 4 o'clock this afternoon," the driver replied indifferently.

"3 or 4 o'clock?!" Troy cried out. "I'd get there faster on one of those buffalo!!"

"Well, it was your fault the car broke down in the first place!" the driver barked. He shook his head. "You could've taken the train. Easier and cheaper, but you had to take my cab." Troy crossed his arms in a sulk and stared ahead.

"I don't have money to buy a ticket!" he said in his defense.

The driver slammed down the brakes.

"What did you just say?" he growled.

Troy could've kicked himself.

He had never realized exactly how far the taxi had gotten. He'd actually be quite impressed at the amount of ground gained by such a measly vehicle if it wasn't for his situation. The driver dumped him in a completely strange country road of dust and dirt where the nearest house was made of banana leaves and bamboo timber. There was no one around either.

Still in his boxers, all his dignity in shreds, standing in the middle of a 'new' nowhere where no one knew where he was, and with no money or any form of communication, Troy was once again the victim of personal humiliation. As he stared around dubiously, the pathetic truth of the moment sank.

'OH MY GOD!!!" Troy screamed, pulling out his hair that was already falling out on its own.

"WHERE THE HELL AM I!??!?"


	4. Tim Vo

_**Tim Vo - False Heart**_

* * *

If Troy's luck wasn't already bad enough, it started to rain. 

If it were Albuquerque, Troy would have frozen to death wearing just boxers, but since it was Vietnam, it pretty much ranged from lukewarm to warm and it didn't cool him off at all, which was twice as annoying.

The dusty road quickly turned into mud and the mud turned into muddy water.

All Troy had on to shelter himself was his shirt, and he sacrificed hiding his boxers and pulled it over his head as he ran to some shelter. He found a small hut that had a front balcony sheltered by banana leaves. It was convenient, so Troy took his chances.

He stepped onto the wooden deck and shook his clothes and hair dry, gazing with awe at the rain as it roared down in sheets. The balcony was really small and narrow and even as he huddled as far back as he could, the rain still splashed onto him. Troy didn't even notice that he wasn't alone standing there.

"Hey, you!" a voice said. Troy naively glanced upwards. "Hey!" The voice was coming from under him, so Troy glanced down and realized there was an old man lying on the floor. Troy jumped. The man looked angry, and a bit surprised to see him. "What are doing?"

"I'm sorry," Troy said breathlessly. "I… I didn't realize anyone else was here." He glanced around again. "Is… is this your place?"

"No," the old man said, sitting up. "But you're standing on my feet!" Troy immediately moved himself off the poor man's feet. He was easily agitated now, having not eaten or sat still for hours. He could barely speak from the pounding of his own heart in his head. He was more confused than he ever was in the last four hours.

"Could you please be so kind to tell me where I am, sir?" Troy asked in a small voice. The man looked at him for a few moments, then out into the rain. He looked sympathetic; Troy didn't really know why.

"You're in Binh Tuy countryside," the old man told him.

Great, that helped a lot… if he actually had any idea where Binh Tuy countryside _was_. Troy looked around again. The small village was barely visible through the rain, but from what he could see there were only hills and trees with tiny wooden huts… nothing he recognized. There were no buildings or any sign of city lifestyle. Since he didn't have a map or a clue as to how far it was to Saigon now, that only made it worse. His feet were worn out, and there was a hole in his gut, having been scratching its way out from the inside. The anguish of not getting home in time didn't help much either.

But he grateful, nonetheless. At least he knew where he was, wherever he was. Luckily the old man saw this.

The rain eventually stopped, and Troy was allowed to escort his back to his home (it was muddy and slippery), and in exchange Troy could to use the phone.

The old man's hut was very small. It didn't have a front door, but a curtain to pull across at night time. His family were sitting on the floor in front of the television as Troy nervously approached, but since the old man so casually permitted him to use the phone, their attention soon derived onto something else more interesting on TV instead of asking him strange questions like people normally did to him ever since he arrived in Vietnam.

While smoothing out his wet brown hair with one hand, Troy reached into his front with his other hand and pulled out the scrunched-up change the Vietnamese girl on the train and given him, dialing in the number that was written on it. He wasn't exactly sure why she had put her phone number on the change, but from the way it was written, very faint with lead in messy and hurried handwriting at the corner, he was pretty sure that she hadn't intentionally given it to him. The phone rang.

Troy wondered what he might say to the girl he had so carelessly insulted a few hours ago. He wondered what she would do when she picked up.

The side of her personality she had displayed to him on the train had cut him short of respect, but she redeemed herself in the attempts to help him. Troy pondered again on whether she would help him now, because he was definitely sure he would be willing to accept any help that could take him back on time.

The phone clicked and a soft yet familiar voice came from the other end.

"Hello?" Troy took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"Hello," he answered back.

"Who is this?" she asked in Vietnamese. Troy scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"It's me," he said in English. "I was the American on the train." He laughed softly. "Lucky your number was on the change you gave me." He heard her sigh.

"It's for you to call home," she said concernedly. "Why are you calling me?"

Troy was surprised; she sounded so different from the person he met on the train. He circled the ground with his foot.

"I wanted to call... to apologize for what I said," he confessed.

A short pause.

"Is that all?" she said finally.

"And… I was hoping you'd forgive me." The girl sighed again.

"That's okay," she told him. "It was my fault too."

"Oh, no," Troy said abruptly. He shook his head. "No, it was entirely mine."

Now that he thought about it, the way she acted towards him was primarily because he was rude to her. She offered to help and he dismissed her like she was some servant. He realized now, he was the one who looked like the bad guy.

"Alright," the girl answered in a dismissive voice. "I forgive you. Satisfied? I wish you all the best."

"Wait!" Troy laughed nervously. "You're the only one I know here." He awkwardly looked around the area again. "So, I was wondering… if you can forgive me, can you help me?"

He was so desperate for an answer, which she took her time to give. Troy thought to himself; this girl wouldn't have anything at all to gain if she were to help him. In truth, he would be asking too much of her. If the roles were reversed, Troy wasn't even sure if _he_ would even be understanding and sympathetic to help a person like him; he was American, and he couldn't fit in so easily. Troy allowed her to take her time.

"Alright," she told him at last. "Just tell me where you are."

* * *

Meanwhile… 

A motorbike revved from out of the dark road towards the crammed and narrow parking lot of MM Station. The dim and weak yellow lights that shone outside the station reflected its surrounding in a much dull mood, but the two Americans ignored this and leaped to their feet as soon as the brakes were hit.

Chad raced ahead first while Thuy wisely put the bike in a safe place from bandits. You couldn't be too careful, and Thuy couldn't risk looking like the dumber of the duo at a time like this. He wasn't the one who forced them to wonder in the woods for two hours because he misread the goddamn map.

"Troy!" Chad shouted. He ran into the station, looked around wildly, then ran out onto the platform. "Troy! Where are you?!"

Not only was the area completely deserted, the platform was only about two inches above the rail. One trip and half your body would be laid flat under a passing train.

Other than that, there wasn't anywhere Troy could be hiding out here anyway. Chad sighed heavily, all the adrenaline he felt a moment ago vanished, only to be replaced by despair and the gnawing sound of Taylor's voice, screaming at him for letting Troy into this mess. He slowly went over to the ledge and sat down.  
Taylor was going to kill him.

Thuy rushed in a few seconds later in the exact state Chad was a moment ago. He spotted Chad by the railings. Thuy ran over and repeatedly tapped him while looking around in the same frantic manner.

"Where's Troy?!" he breathed. "Where's Troy? Where's Troy? Where's Troy?!" Chad pushed him off.

"He's gone," he said dryly. He picked up a rock and hurled it at the rails.

The tracks were too quiet. No signs of a train coming or going. Thuy sat himself down beside Chad and the two just gazed down at the tracks, wondering what their girls will do to them now. Thuy glanced sideways at Chad.

"What do we do now?" he asked. Chad kept staring at the road in front of him.

"Fly back to Albuquerque," he muttered. "Immediately. Forget the wives."

"What about Troy?" Thuy said questionably. Chad shook his head stiffly, keeping his gaze firmly ahead.

"I don't care," he said. "He can go wherever he wants."

Thuy understood what he meant. He glanced up at the night sky and crossed his arms. There were no stars, so even if Troy knew his astrology, there was no chance he would walk home tonight.

"If you were Troy, what would you do?" Thuy said after a while.

"I'd think of death," Chad replied grimly. "Just death."

There didn't seem to be anything worse at the moment. They took his wallet and his passport. If he wasn't here, where else could he have gotten to without any money?

"Do you think he jumped from the train?" Thuy asked fearfully. Chad closed his eyes and emitted yet another sigh.

"Thuy," he said frankly. "Troy wouldn't even jump off a bed, let alone a moving train."

"That's what I mean!" Thuy exclaimed, looking serious again. "He jumped to commit suicide!"

It seemed likely. Troy was a nervous guy, especially without his pants.

Chad rolled his eyes and pulled himself to his feet. He helped Thuy up and the two headed back outside the station.

"You think he might be hiding?" Chad asked. Thuy thought about it for a second.

"He probably _would_ think of hiding from us," he said discreetly. "But then again, I don't think he'd be so stupid, especially after three hours."

He went round the back to get their bike as Chad waited with his hands in his pockets.

So they didn't know where Troy was. They had only a few hours to find him and return him home safely before the girls became suspicious, which meant they had until 4 o'clock for Troy and Gabriella's engagement party. Until then, they could pretend Troy was doing something. The only problem until then wasn't Gabriella, but Taylor and Kim. Since Troy wasn't going to be present to feel the wrath of the angry wives, Chad and Thuy would be.

Chad pulled out a stick of gum and placed it in his mouth. He chewed vigorously as he thought about what would happen if they returned without Troy. What Taylor would do to him, and he was sure she would probably make him sleep in the bathtub again if he and Thuy were the reason Troy and Gabriella weren't engaged. Chad's gaze subconsciously drifted onto the line of unmoving taxis and he furrowed his eyebrows curiously. He could see the drivers in the taxis, either asleep or doing something to the car. A thought slowly crept under his afro, and he hurried over to Thuy.

"I think there might have been a way Troy got around," he told him. Thuy quirked an eyebrow.

"Without any pants or money?" he said. "I seriously doubt it."

"We could ask around," Chad suggested with a shrug, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. Thuy glanced at the cabs.

"It's worth a try," he sighed. He handed the bike to Chad and walked over to the nearest taxi.

The driver was doing something to the engine, but he seemed to be finishing it off. Thuy cleared his throat very loudly.

"Excuse me," he said in Vietnamese. The man didn't notice again. "Hey!" Thuy knocked on the front screen window hard. The driver jolted and almost hit his head on the front.

"What?!" he snapped.

"Are you working?" Thuy asked as Chad came up behind him. The driver gave Chad a strange look, but nodded.

"Yeah," he said. He slammed down the front and wiped his hands on the back of his pants.

"Did you happen to see an American man with no pants?" Thuy asked eagerly.

"Yes," the driver replied. Thuy looked over at Chad and gave him a nod.

"Right," he said, turning back. "And… do you know where he went?"

"Of course I do," the driver scoffed.

Thuy's eyes widened slightly and he exchanged a look with Chad, who although couldn't understand the language, understood the tone of the driver's response.

* * *

Troy had been walking for twenty minutes, but with the knowledge that he was actually heading towards a specific place, he wasn't too worry. 

He knew he was going the right way, thanks to that Vietnamese girl's directions, and he could now see huts among the trees and hills.

Approaching into the village, he could hear the sound of dogs barking and the soft chattering of neighbours sitting outside their homes.

Troy ignored the staring as he drew closer to the hut he had been directed to, and he knocked on the wooden door. As he waited, he couldn't help but look back at the group of young women staring at him. For once, he didn't know if they were staring at him because he was American or simply because he wasn't wearing pants.

The door opened.

The girl from before stood in front of him, looking much more tired than she did before. She was wearing silk pyjamas, and her long black hair was flowing down her back.

"Come in," she told him in English. She stepped aside as Troy entered, and she closed the door very gently.

"I'm sorry to bother you," Troy said again. The girl merely brushed past him.

"The phone's over there," she whispered. "Please don't be too loud. There are people sleeping." Troy nodded and looked around.

The room was large, but very bare. All there was in the room was a simple table and chair, and in the corner a small bed. The floor was hard and cold, and small rugs were placed beside the bed and entrance. The girl stepped behind a screen and Troy watched as her silhouette preened her long hair. He cleared his throat roughly and turned away.

"Um," he began. "I… I wanted to ask you…"

"What is it?" she said from behind the screen.

"I need $52,000 for a return ticket to Saigon," he said. The silhouette tilted her head slightly before reaching down into a drawer.

"I don't have $52,000," she said matter-of-factly.

Troy sighed and went over to the phone. He already knew he was asking a lot of her, and she was extremely understanding to help someone like him, despite everything. He picked up the receiver and dialed the number to his hotel. He pressed it to his ear and waited anxiously.

"Hello, QQ Hotel," a cool female voice said. "How may I help you?"

"Uh, hi," Troy said in Vietnamese. "My name's Troy. If my friends come looking for me, can you give them a message? My room number is 502."

"Of course, sir," the receptionist said. "Would you like a written message or a recorded one?"

"A recorded one, please," Troy replied. "It's… uh, it's going to be in English, so I think that's the best way." He heard the receptionist type something. He then heard a beep.

"Alright, sir," she said. "What is your message?"

"The message is…" Troy began. He cleared his throat and closed his eyes for a moment. He imaged Thuy and Chad's face, and all the faded anger and frustration he had felt for them in the past few hours erupted at once.

"You two bastards!" he spat into the phone. The girl peered out from behind the screen door and watched him curiously. "I'll kill you if you don't pick me up right now! My phone number is…" He stopped and looked over to the girl. "What's your number?" She dropped her gaze.

"062-835-620," she muttered. Troy gave her an appreciative nod and hardened his face again as he repeated the number back to the phone.

"You got that?" he asked the receptionist.

"Every word, sir," she replied.

"Alright, thanks." Troy replaced the receiver. The girl was still watching him with her arms crossed.

"Why didn't you call your fiancée?" she asked. Troy looked away and sat down on the nearby chair, keeping his eyes on the ground. He didn't want her to see how depressed he was about bringing up that topic. The girl smiled a little to herself. She went over and stared out the window through the dirty shutters.

"You told her you wouldn't go out to drink," she said. Troy looked up. She glanced at him over her shoulder. "But then you did anyway." Troy frowned a little.

"How did you know?' he asked. She just shrugged and resumed her gaze out the window.

"It's a common situation," she said frankly. The girl closed the shutters and dusted her hands clean. She turned back around to see Troy staring at the floor again. She smiled encouragingly. "Don't worry, she'll forgive you. Women are very forgiving."

Not Gabriella, a voice screamed inside Troy's head. She had made him promise, triple promise that he wouldn't get into any trouble, and specifically not to go out a drink. It wasn't the first time he had gone against his word and succumbed to the persuasions of Chad and Thuy, and he knew Gabriella wouldn't be able to let this situation go as easily.

"I'll call her when I'm at the end of my rope," he said out loud. The girl walked up in front of him, her arms still crossed.

"What choice do you have?" she asked. Troy closed his eyes and shook his head. He placed a hand on his forehead.

"I came here from America," he exclaimed, throwing up his hands. "How hard can it be to get back to Saigon?" The girl hugged herself and started pacing.

Troy seemed desperate to find a way back, and she knew she had the upper hand. She could take advantage of this poor American man, but for some reason it seemed cruel. When would a person say it was easier to get to another country, but more difficult to get back to another city? He was definitely afraid of his fiancée, and that was foolish, but nonetheless he wanted to get back on time. The girl was hesitant to speak her mind; there was only so much she could do for him. She stopped pacing.

"There's a way," she said at last. "But it's kind of complicated." Troy sat up straight and directed his full attention to her.

"Just tell me," he muttered. He was desperate, she could tell. She sat down in a chair in front of him.

"I'm only doing this because it's your anniversary today," she told him.

"Just tell me," Troy said again, getting more anxious to hear what she had to say. "As long as I can get back to Saigon, I'll do it." The girl stood up again and turned her back to him. She gazed up at a shrine in the far corner.

"Today's my grandmother's memorial day," she said. She went over and kneeled next to it. Troy frowned again.

"What does that have to do with me?" he asked. The girl looked back over at Troy.

"I'll take you back to Saigon, if you'll come meet my parents," she said.

There was an awkward silence.

"Me?" Troy said, totally confused. She nodded. "But… but I'm American."

"It's fine," she told him, standing up. "My parents already believe my boyfriend is an American. I told them a few months ago." Troy stared at her for a few moments but nodded, though he was still a little unsettled about a Vietnamese girl telling her parents she had an American boyfriend. Troy quickly shook off his thoughts as he looked back at her.

"Okay," he said. "Is that all I have to do?" She nodded.

"You'll_ pretend _to be my boyfriend and just meet them once," she continued in a low voice. "After that, I'll find you a way back." She turned her back to him and stared deadpan into the opposite wall. Troy frowned as he thought about the plan. No plan didn't have flaws, especially such a risky and personal one like this.

"Wouldn't your parents want me to visit again and meet them next time?" he asked.

The girl stiffened for moment, and she looked away yet again, like she did whenever she was hesitant about something.

"There won't be a next time," she said very quietly.

It took a few seconds, but Troy seemed to understand what her plan was going to be. It made him feel even more uneasy about how personal the entire issue was. He shifted in his seat and looked out the door.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I'd rather wait here for those idiots." The girl turned back around, her entire face emotionless except for her brown eyes. She crossed her arms again.

It's up to you," she said to him.

* * *

Thuy and Chad sat patiently in the back seat as the driver took them somewhere new altogether. It had been a long and bumpy ride, and they had entered well into foreign territory. The trip was silent, they weren't allowed to ask any question; all they knew was Troy had taken this taxi and the only person saw his last was this driver. 

The car stopped abruptly in the middle of a dusty road.

"Okay," the driver announced. He held out his hand. "We're here. Pay up."

"Where's here?" Thuy asked, giving him the money.

"The spot I dropped him off," the driver replied simply. Thuy and Chad stepped out of the cab and took down their motorbike, staring around with awe at the country village.

They had no idea where they were, and before Thuy could ask the driver, he zoomed off leaving behind a cloud of dust and two very confused Americans.

"Troy!!" Chad shouted. "Where are you?"

"Troy!" Thuy yelled. "Troy!!"

But yet again to their dismay and humiliation, there was no answer.


	5. Chi La Giac Mo Qua

_**Chi La Giac Mo Qua - It Was Just A Dream**_

* * *

A face in the darkened mirror stared right back at the Vietnamese girl as she buttoned up her pink shirt and brushed her long ebony hair. 

She stared at herself, dismayed at how the silhouette of the window frame from the dawning sun cast dark shadows under her eyes and among her cheekbones. In the back of the mirror was the reflection of a sleeping American man on the small hard bed in the corner, looking almost heartbreakingly peaceful after a wild night of misadventure. The girl almost felt bad having to wake him, but at a glance of her watch, she didn't really have a choice. She stood up from her sear in front of her small dressing table, checked that she looked completely right, then went over to Troy on the bed.

Of course, he wasn't wearing anything more than he had the night before. He has agreed to go along with her plan, and went to bed happy with the reassurance that he actually really might have a chance at getting home in time for the engagement party. He looked like he needed a few more hours, but the girl just didn't have a few more hours. She shook him awake.

"Wake up," she urged. Troy groaned. "Come on, it's morning." Troy turned a little on the bed, his eyes still closed.

"What time is it?" he mumbled. The girl grabbed her shoulder bag and searched through it.

"It's 6am," she told him. Troy opened his eyes, blinked a few times, but then the words sank in and he quickly sat up.

"6am?!?!" he exclaimed. He jumped up in shock, but unfortunately because the bed was so small and solid, he tumbled onto the floor. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"You were dreaming," she replied. She took his hand and pulled him up. "Did you sleep well?" Troy nodded, sitting back down on the bed.

"Yes," he muttered. "But now I'm awake and thinking about what my girlfriend's going to do to me all over again."

* * *

Little did he know, he had somewhat of an instinct when it came to Gabriella, because without him actually realizing it, she had _indeed _come back 6 hours earlier than she had said, and had arrived at his hotel. 

She asked the receptionist politely about Troy, and the receptionist responded enthusiastically.

"Oh, he left a message," she told her. She dialled a number in her telephone and handed it to a dubious Gabriella. The receptionist watched bemusedly at Gabriella's expression as she listened to the voice message. It changed from surprised, to confused, to more and more confused. Gabriella laughed nervously as she looked back at the receptionist.

"Uh… could you please dial a number for me?" she asked.

* * *

The phone rang. 

The girl preened her hair once again as she went over to pick it up as Troy watched.

"Hello?" she said.

There was a rather awkward pause at the end of the other line, or else someone was playing a prank on her. She frowned.

"Hello?" she said again.

"Hello?" came a dumbfounded Gabriella's voice.

"I'm sorry," the girl said in Vietnamese. "You've got the wrong number." And without waiting for a reply, she hung up. Troy watched anxiously.

"Who was it?" he asked. The girl shrugged and brushed past him to the door.

"Some old lady, I guess," she said carelessly. She glanced back at him. "Are you ready?" Troy stood up very slowly and held out his arms so she could take a read good look at him. He grinned sardonically.

"Don't know about you," he said sarcastically. "But I think I'd look better if I had pants." He glanced down at his boxers again. The girl laughed and again brushed past him to the phone. Troy placed his hands on his hips, growing impatiently. "Who are you calling now?"

The girl didn't answer. She was more concentrated into not allowing herself to laugh at him as she dialled the phone number. She pressed the receiver to her ear and lowered her eyes. A sweet smile spread across her face as someone picked up.

"Mom?" she said in Vietnamese. She laughed a genuine laugh. "Yeah, it's me. I just wanted to tell you I'll be there in about two hours, okay?" Her gaze drifted back onto Troy. She smiled again, but not quite directly at him. "Yes, yes." She giggled and rolled her eyes. "Yes, I told you he's here. No! You can't talk to him! Uh-huh… yeah. I'll see you soon. Bye, Mom." She placed down the receiver and instantly, she went to the door again, only this time dragging Troy with her.

Troy wasn't exactly sure what she did, but she made him stand outside a neighbour's house in the middle of the street as merchants and street sellers walked by, all of them suddenly stop yelling and just staring at him at point blank. It wasn't fun, and Troy made sure they knew it. A lady even took off her hat as she offered him some _che_, not that that helped. She was pretty old.

A rooster started going crazy and cock-a-doodle-dooed at exactly 6:30, and it wouldn't stop for almost twenty minutes. The crow was horrendous, like a broken buzzer alarm! Before he learned how to work the alarm clock on his iPod, he had a buzzer alarm, and every single morning he would wake up with a heart attack. Luckily then, and unluckily now, it had a snooze button. The rooster didn't.

At last, Troy uttered a sigh of relief as the girl came out. She was holding a pair of pants for him.

"Here," she said, handing it to him. Troy eagerly took them, and without even caring his was standing right in front of her, he pulled them on.

They fit really well, and they looked like they were tailored too. He beamed at her.

"How did you get these?" he asked. The girl clapped her hands behind her back and lowered her eyes again.

"Well, you have to look good," she said, shrugging. "If you didn't have a good pair of pants, my parents would think things." He looked back up at him and smiled, very briefly. They made their way down a small road.

"Where are we going?" Troy asked. All the excitement in feeling the feel of fabric against his legs had subsided that question for a while now. "To your parents?"

"Yeah," she replied with a nod.

"And where's that?" Troy said doubtfully.

"Mui Ne," she said simply. Troy stopped in his tracks.

"Where?!" he asked, suddenly feeling scared. The girl stopped as well and looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Mui Ne," she said again, pointing ahead. "It's about 250km that way." Troy's jaw dropped. All these horrible thoughts and feelings filled him all over again.

He stared at the direction she was pointing; it was the exact opposite of where Saigon was.

"You never mentioned Mui Ne!!!" he shouted.

"I just did!" she said, holding up her hands. Troy just stared at her.

It was impossible to win.

Troy closed his eyes and took a deep breath to clear his mind.

"Okay," he said in a slow, calm voice. "If I do what you say… YOU HAVE TO GET ME BACK!!!" He glanced back and forth on the little road, making himself very dizzy. "Saigon is that way!!!" He pointed to the right with his right arm. "And Mui Ne is that way!!!" He pointed to the left with his left arm. "Tell me how this is going to work?!!?" The girl gently pushed both his arms back to his side and silenced him with a stern stare.

"It won't matter as long as you get back to Saigon on time," she said calmly. Troy let out a groan and slapped his forehead with his hand, walking in a circle over again.

"No way," he muttered, shaking his head over and over. The girl crossed her arms. Troy let out a laugh. "I can't believe that…" He looked down the road and could see a bus. He laughed again. "… that I'd be stupid enough to get on a bus going the opposite way from Saigon!!!"

It was so far-fetched. How could she not mention it to him before? If he simply had to meet her parents who were in the neighbourhood or something like that, he could come to an agreement. But… to get there on a bus more than 200km away, 200km further away from Saigon… why would he be so stupid?? There had to be another way.

"I think," the girl said thoughtfully as she watched him have his routine meltdown. "It's time to call your fiancée."


	6. Toi Nho Ten Anh

_**Toi Nho Ten Anh - I Remember Your Name**_

* * *

Troy didn't call his fiancée. Nope, he was still too scared and still thought it wasn't necessary to call her. 

Instead, he allowed himself to be strapped into a old bus that only had seats lined up against the wall, and everyone had to sit side by side. The girl, of course, Troy's guardian, protector, tour guard and fake-girlfriend, sat beside him.

People were staring again, and worse yet, they were sitting right in front of him, face-to-face, so pretty much Troy had no choice but to stare back or get motion sickness. He kept close to the girl, as much as he resented her right now for not telling him this specific feature of her plan, but she knew how to look after him.

He still thought about Gabriella. All that he was thinking about was how she was going to react to his tale, to his adventure he took to get back. It was all negative thoughts, but he just couldn't help it. He was scared she would freak. He really couldn't risk her knowing, or else everything was going to fall apart, and Troy knew exactly in which places it would fall apart. He tilted his head to the left to the girl.

"When are we getting there?" he asked. The bus jolted and all the passengers leapt up about three inches off their seats, but no one seemed to care about it. The girl looked at her watch.

"In an hour," she told him. Troy glanced at her watch as well, and calculated the math inside his head.

"It's almost 7:30," he said. "We should be there by 8:30 and stay for an hour." He looked back down at her menacingly. "You better get me on a train by 9:30."

She smiled and leaned back onto the back of her seat.

"Good," she said happily. "You'll even have time to deal with your friends."

* * *

Speaking of which, Thuy and Chad were having trouble of their own. 

From the last time we left them, they were dropped off in the same spot where Troy was dropped off when he revealed to the taxi driver that he had no money to pay him, despite promising to pay double if he were to drive him straight to Saigon.

Thuy and Chad didn't know where they were, because the taxi driver drove off as soon as Thuy handed him the money. Now they were stranded, and very agitated.

Thuy needed some hair gel, desperately, and Chad's afro was becoming uncontrollable. They had driven on their motorbike down the road for a few hours, but soon, they realized the petrol had run out. Stuck yet again in the middle of a new nowhere, they had no choice but to leave the useless vehicle and find another means of transport. Depressed and dirty, Thuy devised a plan that they promised they would only turn to when they reached the end of the road.

"Are you sure about this?" Chad asked. They were hiding behind a couple of bushes as Thuy watched the dusty road for any approaching vehicles. He grinned when a bus appeared in the distance.

"Alright," he said confidently, rubbing his hands together. He turned around to look at Chad. "Remember, we have one chance at this. Don't mess it up."

The two men remained crouching behind the bushes until the bus was about three yards away. Then, very swiftly, they sprang from their hiding point just as the bus passed and hurriedly ran after it.

The back of the bus had an opening where the passengers sat and to get in, all one had to do was jump on.

Thuy gained speed and leapt, catching the rear end of the bus jump between his fingertips and triumphantly pulled himself on. Chad limped behind.

"Come on!!" Thuy shouted, motioning him to run faster. "Come on!!" Chad ran faster and faster, but at the same time so did the bus.

"I can't!!" he screamed.

"Come on!!" Thuy urged again. He extended his hands. Chad grunted at each step and tried his best to reach Thuy's hand. "Come on! Just jump!!"

"I can't!!!" Chad screamed again. He finally grabbed Thuy's hand, but Chad was breathless and tire from the lack of food and the drainage of self-esteem and motivation. He began to slow down, forgetting completely that he was still holding onto Thuy. Thuy struggled to pull his hand off as he felt Chad pull him down.

"Let go!!" he yelled. "For Christ's sake, man, _let go_!!"

Chad didn't let go. In fact, he collapsed, and in doing that, he dragged Thuy down with him. Both of them fell and tumbled onto the dirt-filled road. Thuy hopped to his feet, watching wistfully as the bus drove away. He could've sworn he heard the other passengers laughing. Thuy let out a cry of frustration and kicked the dirt onto Chad, who rolled up into a defensive ball.

They were back at Square One.

* * *

The trip on the bus became tiresome after a while. The road was still bumpy, but many of the passengers had managed to doze off. 

Both Troy and his lifeline resisted the temptation to fall asleep. Troy was doing fine, keeping himself awake by pondering the thoughts in his mind, while his companion was just about to give in.

Her eyes struggled to stay open, so she simply closed them, not to sleep, but to rest them for a while. However, once her brain was alerted of the darkness it had so longed for, drowsiness began to overcome all her senses. Her head felt heavy, and ultimately she gave up her attempts to fight it. Her head rested down on Troy's shoulder.

Her touch slightly surprised Troy, and brought him out of his thoughts. He gazed down at the girl, who abruptly woke and sat back up straight when he attempted gently push her away.

There was an awkward pause, which Troy forced himself to break. He cleared his throat.

"If I'm your boyfriend," he said finally, looking back at her. "Then, I should know your name."

It was strange. All this time they had talked and discussed things, they had never called each other by anything. Troy didn't even realize it until now. The girl kept her eyes away from his.

"Lan," she answered after a while. Troy smiled gently.

"I'm Troy," he said softly. Lan shook her head.

"No," she said, finally returning his stare. "Your name is Theodore." Troy quirked an eyebrow.

"Theodore?" he repeated. Lan smiled just a little and nodded.

"I told my parents that," she said. Troy blinked a few times and tried to register it in his mind.

"Why would you choose a name like that?" he asked. He felt like an old politician with a toothbrush moustache.

"It makes you sound intelligent and professional," Lan explained. "Like an old politician with a toothbrush moustache." This made Troy laugh. "I told my parents you were something like that, so Theodore would suit you." The bus jolted.

You grew up in the country, didn't you?" Troy said as he stared out the window. They were approaching farmlands. "Your name doesn't suit a country girl."

_Lan_ was beautiful name, in Troy's opinion. It meant 'orchid' in Vietnamese, Troy's favourite flower. His mother would wear perfume with its fragrance, and Troy loved the smell of it every time. _Lan_ was a delicate, serene and magical name, given to little girls who required beauty, grace and innocence to maintain its pure meaning. It wasn't a name most country girls would have. Lan seemed to realize this.

"Lan isn't actually my birth name," she confessed. Lan started playing with her hair to distract herself as Troy looked on eagerly. He sat up on his seat.

"What's you birth name, then?" he asked. Lan didn't answer, still fidgeting. Troy smirked. "Come on. Either way, I should know." Lan smiled softly and turned her head away just a little from him.

"Thoi," she muttered. "_No_." Troy let out a laugh.

"I promise I won't laugh," he said honestly. Lan giggled and ran her fingers along a few strands of black hair.

"That's my name," she told him. "Thoi." Troy sat back and bit his lip.

"Hmmm," he said thoughtfully. "Thoi…"

Lan could tell he was probably trying not to smile and elbowed him. Troy laughed.

"So how did you end up with a name like that?" he asked. Lan stared at the sleeping people on the opposite side of the bus.

"My mother had so much pain with giving birth to me," she said with a sad smile. "She said I was enough, so she named me Thoi." Troy pondered that name for a while. There were so many things he could say right now.

"Thoi," he tried it on for size. He turned back to Lan. "Thoi as in thoi de (_no more kids_)?" Lan couldn't help but smile a little. She hit him playfully.

"Don't be silly," she chuckled. Troy sighed and stared up at the ceiling. He laughed again. Lan gave him a stern look. "Why are you laughing?" Troy turned his gaze back onto her.

"What would've happened if your mother had another kid?" he asked. "What would she name it?"

"There's plenty," Lan said matter-of-factly. She sat back and began to think, tilting her head from side to side.

"Thoi het (_no more_)," she muttered out loud. "Thoi ngung (_stop_)…"

"Thoi lo (_oops_)?" Troy suggested. Lan laughed and hit him again.

The bus came across a rather jagged road, but that probably meant they were heading closer into the country side now. Troy couldn't see the powerlines anymore.

"I bet your parents set all their plans out onto you," he said. "Since you're an only child." Lan scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"You have no idea," she said irritably. "Ever since I was little, my mother has pushed me to do well. I had to learn English before I went to school, I had to work hard and study hard all day. I know my parents want what's best for me and have a better life, but they set out plans for me to visit other countries so I can meet and marry a doctor or a lawyer, and if they were American, that was even better." Troy smiled subconsciously. "They want me to go to America and have everything I want there." Lan smiled to herself and started playing with her nails. "My mother has a friend who now lives in the city. She's a flight attendant, and she'd go on and on about how rich Americans are." Lan rolled her eyes, but she smiled as she did it. "My mother would send me to meet some old, rich, non-Vietnamese speaking Texan and hope I'd fall in love." She shook her head and looked at Troy, and he knew she was really annoyed by this. "Can you believe that?" Troy just chuckled. "Anyway, I invented Theodore a few months ago so she'd leave me alone." Lan sighed wearily and went back to playing with her nails. Troy watched her concernedly.

"So, why do you want to break up?" he asked in a soft voice. Lan dropped her hand gently onto her lap and suddenly switched to her emotionless face, like she did whenever she was thinking to herself.

"She asks about him all the time," she said quietly. "I can't hide him forever, so I guess this is the best thing to do."

Lan laid her head back onto the hard wall of the bus, making her thick black hair cuddle her head. She folded her arms across her chest in a relaxing motion, but her dark eyes remained open.

Troy knew she was still having doubts about her plan.

Nobody spoke for a long time. It was peaceful and quiet so everybody except the driver could get some rest. Troy remained restless in his uncomfortable seat, but the trip had definitely made him weary. Lan was tired too, but her thoughts kept her mind active. She glanced sideways at Troy.

"Will there be a problem if you fiancée knew about all this?" she asked. Troy took a moment, but then shook his head.

"No," he said lightly. "No problem. She'll just kill me, that's all." Lan smiled and sat up.

"Then you're lucky," she said. "Because the old lady on the phone was your fiancée." Troy had his seventh heart attack in two days.

"WHAT?!!?!?!"

* * *

Taylor got out of the bathroom and dried her hair with a towel. Her jeans and tank top had been hastily put on so Kim wouldn't complain she hogged the bathroom while changing orderly. As soon as she stepped out of the door frame, Kim zoomed by, said a quick "Finally!" and slammed the door shut. Taylor just laughed and wringed the last drop of wetness from her hair. She went into Gabriella's room to borrow her hairdryer, but was surprised to find her staring out the window. Taylor dropped the towel onto the bed and approached her friend. 

"Gabriella?" she said cautiously. Gabriella jumped and quickly wiped her eyes. She turned around and plastered a smile, but it was clear she was crying. Taylor frowned. "Honey, what's wrong?"

Gabriella knew she wasn't fooled. She turned her back to her again and resumed her gaze. Taylor placed a hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" she asked again. Gabriella began to sob.

"It's Troy," she said tearfully. Taylor automatically put both hands on around Gabriella's shoulders and led her to the bed.

They had arrived very early back to the QQ Hotel, only to find their boys gone and the rooms deserted. They hadn't told the boys they were coming back so soon, wanting it to be a surprised, but after a few hours, they began to worry where they were.

Kim encouraged the thought that they had simply gone out for a while and would be back at any moment, but without any form of communication and having not heard from any of them for hours, hope was fading. Gabriella was extremely worried.

Their engagement party was in a few hours. Had Troy run off? Who was that girl that answered the phone? The receptionist had assured it wasn't a wrong number, so who was she?

Horrible thoughts leaked into Gabriella's mind, and it was breaking her.

"Just relax," Taylor told her. "Maybe it's a surprise. Look, if Troy isn't back by the time he promised, then you should worry." She gave her a reassuring smile. "Until then, just remember you're the one he's chosen to marry, and he isn't one to break a promise like that."

Gabriella managed a weak smile.


	7. Ve Que Em

_**Ve Que Em – Back To My Village**_

* * *

The minutes passed by very slowly on the bus. Troy could stop worrying about anyone staring at him in a strange manner, because pretty much everyone had dozed off due to the fatigue of the trip. He wasn't worried about that anymore anyway; he was used to it. plus, he was preoccupied with a gnawing thought at the back of his mind that he just couldn't get rid of. The more he thought about it, the heavy it seemed to get until that was all he could think about. 

Lan smiled at a little boy sitting next to her with his baby brother in his arms. They were both asleep, and they looked so peaceful and innocent. It filled her with a sense of happiness every time she saw children. Every time. Lan sighed as she turned to look at Troy, sensing his anxiety. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"When she finds out how much trouble you've gone through to get back to her, I'm sure she'll be happy," she told him. Troy's small smile appeared and disappeared.

"Whether she's happy or not, I don't know," he said truthfully. He gazed out the window into the country fields. "But I'm worried now." Lan saddened as she saw how truly apprehensive he was.

"I promised you'll get back in time," she said optimistically. Troy gave her a grateful smile, but didn't look any happier.

"It's not that," he finally gave out. Troy sighed wearily and again peered out the window as he spoke. "When you get married, you always think it was the man who gathered enough courage to say 'Hey, I'm ready to have a family with you'." Troy dropped his eyes to the floor in front of him and shook his head. "But the truth is… Gabriella proposed to me, and I told her 'yes'." Lan attempted a smile, but it faded when she realize this wasn't happy news to Troy. He heaved another sigh. "I told her I wanted to marry her, but… I was lying." A crease formed between Lan's eyebrows.

"You don't want to marry her?" she said unconsciously. Troy laughed painfully and shook his head.

"No, that's not it," he said. His blue eyes met with Lan's brown pools so he could make sure she knew he was telling her the truth. "It's just… not now. See, I'm… I'm ready to be a husband just yet. Not one responsible enough for her, anyway." His eyes drifted back out the window, where he imaged Gabriella's face. "She talks about the big white wedding, and buying our first house, and having our first baby…" Troy collapsed onto his seat, the thought of it overwhelming him. "It scares me too much." Lan tilted her head to the side in question.

"Why did you lie to her?" she asked. Troy felt a lump form in his throat as the images of Gabriella flashed before his eyes.

"I'm scared that… if I tell her, I'll lose her," he muttered.

Gabriella had their entire future planned. She was so happy about how perfect everything was, how wonderful their lives will be, and how happy they would be together for the rest of their lives. To tell her he didn't want any of that, it would break her heart, and it was another unforgivable lie.

"If you lose her," Lan said promptly. "Then she doesn't love you."

Troy chuckled mirthlessly.

"It's not that simple," he explained. Lan shrugged like she did when he would say something meaningless, but this time there was still that kindness in her eyes.

"If you tell her the truth," she told him. "She'll love you more."

Love him more? What did that mean? You couldn't love someone any more or less than you already have. You either loved them from the very beginning, despite everything, or you never loved them at all. You might've thought you were in love with someone, but the truth was that it was an illusion created by passion or romance. Not love.

"If she doesn't love me, why would she propose to me?" Troy asked. He looked at Lan, hoping for her to tell him something that could make him feel more secured and certain. She just stared right back, her eyes unreadable.

"Well," she said. "Then, why are you asking this question?"

Troy pondered her question. He pondered his love for Gabriella, and pondered her love for him. Why was he pondering? He loved Gabriella and vice versa, why was he suddenly so doubtful?

The bus came across the shimmering ocean in the distance. The sun reflected from its ripples, and the sharp silhouette of a man in a boat stood out in the sea of teal blue. The view was breathtaking.

"Some people live in denial all their lives," Lan said softly. She was enjoying the scene as well, her head tilted to one side as it rested against the back wall. She smiled dreamily.

"My uncle married this wonderful woman," she muttered. She smiled again as she remembered. "I thought he was happy, but before he died, he told me he had always loved another." Lan sighed. "His true love. He said that's his destiny." She sat back up, her expression still sad from the memory. "I felt so sorry for him, but then I thought… what a beautiful story." She smiled melancholically. Troy watched her as she glanced back at the ocean. "He felt love the way most of us would never feel."

For a split second, Troy watched as Lan's brown eyes glistened with hope and starry-eyedness. It was so different from the tough-as-nails girl he met on the train, and it was definitely a softer and more vulnerable side. Troy knew she had never been in love, and only ever dreamed of how beautiful true love would be. He knew it was never as extravagant as people dreamed it would be, to fall in love, but it was something special that one would hold in their hearts forever.

Once again, a silence fell and Lan and Troy fazed out into their own worlds for a while as the bus rose and fell on the bumpy road.

Troy questioned himself; what was true love? Had he ever actually felt it, or was it just regular love with Gabriella? The first time he met her, there was definitely a spark, but from then on, Troy could only stress to describe their relationship as 'romance'. Only when Gabriella proposed to him did they take their relationship to a newer level. They became more serious, but Troy felt this change from romance to be weary, and, although he still loved Gabriella, he felt the spark and that wondrous feeling to have fizzled out.

He looked at his parents; they were still in love, after all these years of marriage. Every morning, his dad would give his mom a kiss and whisper something into her ear, and they would just have a simple moment where nobody else in the world could understand. Every caress, every touch, every word, every smile, it triggered that beautiful warm feeling inside their hearts to erupt all over again, making them just want to see one another every day, to feel one another's touch every day, to smell one another's smell every day. Just knowing they were there and just knowing that they only had each other in their hearts, even when they were miles apart. Nothing else would ever matter, and nothing else would ever exist if that feeling faded.

That was true love.

The bus jolted violently, waking a few passengers. Lan held out a piece of paper in front of Troy.

"Here," she said, handing it to him. "I wrote this when you were sleeping, You can read too, right?" Troy nodded subconsciously.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Our break-up scene," she said straightforwardly. She pointed at it. "I wrote it like a script in a movie." Troy squinted his eyes and held the paper closer.

"_'__I only know…__'_" he began in Vietnamese.

"That's my line," Lan indicated, pointing it out. "You start here." She cleared her throat and leaned over more onto him as she tried to read off it. "_'I've been accepted to teach at a university in Norway.__'_"

"Why Norway?" Troy couldn't help but ask. Lan gave him a look.

"You're just acting!" she told him in a _duh!_ tone. She looked back at the paper. "You say you have to move to Norway after the wedding, and I'd have to come with you. Then I'd say '_I thought we were going to live in America. What will I do in Norway?_' Then you'll say '_You'll cook and clean and raise the kids, like all women do._' then I'd say '_But what about my family_?' and then you'll yell '_A wife should follow her husband!_'" Troy raised his eyebrows slightly, feeling uncomfortable.

"Then we argue for a while," Lan went over, gesturing in a bored manner. She pointed at a certain section of the page. "Up to this point, you stand up and slap me!" Troy eyes widened in horror. "So I cry and we break up." She smiled good-naturedly and gave the shaken Troy the script.

"That's all there is to it," she said simply. "Make sure you know your lines." Troy stared at the paper, feeling a little sick.

His eyes darted from side to side as he reread and re-reread the paper. Something just didn't seem right about the part when he had to… hit her.

Troy wasn't a violent man. He wouldn't hit a woman even if he was paid a million dollars for it. He swallowed as he handed back the paper to Lan.

"I'm telling you now," he said feebly. "I'm not that good an actor." Lan folded the paper and tucked it safely into her pocket.

"Don't worry," she told him brightly. "My parents are really forgetful. Even if we mess it up completely, they wouldn't notice." She looked back at Troy. "My aunts will be there too. My third Aunt helps my mother cook. She really likes it when people compliment her food, so remember to say something nice. But you have to speak loudly because she has a hearing problem." Troy chuckled softly.

"What about your other aunt?" he asked. It was nice hearing about her family.

"There's nothing wrong with her," Lan said frankly. She smiled and her eyes glittered again. "She just had a baby boy, and he's the cutest little thing in the world." Troy had to smile at this; he hadn't seen this side of her before. The side where that was so gentle and loving, and the thought of a little baby made her spirit and eyes sparkle. He realized he had completely misjudged her when they first met. He now came to the full realization that he often mistook first impressions to be the real thing. He looked back outside, and saw that again the scene had changed.

Before, it was dusty roads, and now it was simply all green. The hills were green, covered in a thick healthy layer of grass and bushes, the curves running parallel to the unbelievably clear blue sky. Palm trees lined up side by side, their green leaves beautifully blending in with its flourishing background. Bamboo huts were merely an inch high from where Troy was sitting, nonetheless he felt their presences completed the scenery. The serene sound of songbirds filled the air, not too loud and not too soft, in a way that made everything else seem just perfect.

"This is beautiful," Troy muttered. He stared with upmost awe as they approached the mountain side, which consisted of a deep brown and grey colour, fusing the sky with the greenness of the ground. Lan smiled to herself as she too enjoyed the view.

"You think so?" she asked, looking back at him. "You don't see a poor country?" Troy frowned and shook his head firmly.

"Of course not," he said in a candid voice. "Why?" Lan sighed and resumed looking at the grasslands.

"Foreigners usually think that," she said sadly. Troy smirked and followed her gaze once more.

"It's probably because they're jealous," he told her.

"Jealous of what?" Lan asked. Troy just smiled and stared out for another moment.

"All of this," he said softly, holding out his hands at the village before him. "They're jealous for not having a simple and peaceful life like this."

This was how life should be. Just simple and beautiful, forever. No one had to worry about television or internet, or cars and motorbikes or road rage, not getting to work on time or getting fired… all the unimportant things in life that made it difficult. Here was a piece of land that Mother Nature had nurtured, given her love to, and made it beautiful. The villagers here took what was given to them and didn't neglect it, and because of this, life was filled with serenity and peace, something Troy longed to have. He believed that was all he would need in life to be truly free and complete.

"Looks like your fiancée knows how to choose her men," Lan commented, watching him. Troy smiled shyly and felt his cheeks flush, not knowing why. Embarrassed, he quickly turned his eyes back outside. Lan smiled to herself at the effect of her words, and both fell into silence and stared out at the fields of buffalo grazing and birds swooping down now and then.

"I think you'll like my village," Lan said softly.

"Is it beautiful?" Troy asked. Lan smiled and nodded.

"Next to my house," she said. "There's a lake. Every time I'm there, I'd take my little boat out and go into the forest where there are no phones or electricity." Troy shifted against the wall, resting his head down so his gaze automatically focused on Lan next to him.

"What do you do there all day?" he said curiously. Lan sighed and flicked her long hair back and leaned forward on her seat.

"Just like Little Red Riding Hood," she said breezily with a shrug. "I just go around as I please."

"You aren't afraid of wolves?" Troy joked. Lan let out a laugh.

"No," she insisted. She gazed up dreamily. "There are only birds singing. If I'm hungry I just pick fruits from the trees. If I'm hot, I jump in the lake." Troy smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"You're not scared anyone might be watching you?" he asked. Lan laughed again and hit him.

"You can't stay there forever and you'll never be found," she reassured him. Her brown eyes suddenly flashed with an unreadable emotion as she stared into Troy's blues. The emotion shocked him in a way he couldn't understand, but he couldn't look away. Before he could make out what it was, Lan broke the eye contact abruptly, her pale cheeks reddening. She cleared her throat and moved uncomfortably in her seat. She brushed the strands of hair back from her face.

"I'll let you get some rest," she said matter-of-factly. "If my mother asks me why you look tired, I wouldn't know how to tell her." Troy, still recovering from the tense few seconds, nodded robotically.

The bus jumped up and down as it usually did, and Lan made a lame attempt to get up. The bus did a violent jolt, coincidentally just as she got to her feet, forcing her to fall right onto Troy's lap. Troy didn't move or yell or do anything much besides just look at her with blankness; he felt himself paralysed in this awkward situation. A red-faced Lan quickly got up, avoiding eye contact, and went over to the other side of the bus and sat down with her eyes on the ground. Troy continued to watch her from afar for the rest of the trip, still unsure why she was so embarrassed about it, and why he felt a little embarrassed by it. Why was he? Why was it suddenly so tense again after he and Lan finally had a chance to know each other?

Lan finally looked up at him for a split second, and once their eyes connected, Troy automatically looked away. He didn't understand why, but he couldn't look at her without feeling embarrassed and blushing a little.

* * *

Thuy and Chad had finally found a means of transport after wondering through a desert-like area for almost an hour. Luckily that they stumbled across a train station and still had money on them, they both knew the only thing left to do was to go back to Saigon without Troy. 

They both collapsed onto a seat in the train, dirty and exhausted, and dreading getting back to face their wives. Thuy stared mindlessly out the window while Chad kept to himself.

"Are you sure this train goes back to Saigon?" he asked. Thuy didn't move.

"No," he answered. Chad blinked. "To me, I'm not sure of anything anymore." Thuy shook his head grimly and fell back onto his seat. "What could be right, will be wrong! What could be wrong, could be even more wrong!" His scratched his head, staring deadpan at the wall in front of him. Chad chuckled; he knew he was thinking about Kim and her ways or punishing him.

"You're insane," Chad remarked. Thuy let out an almost manic laugh and looked over at his friend.

"While it's you who's insane," he said.

The two shared a laugh, knowing it was neither of them could be individually blamed. They were in it together, and that was what made it so amusing.


	8. Time Is Running Out

The rest of the trip, neither Troy nor Lan attempted to clear the tension or make any more eye contact. Lan sat at one end, Troy sat at the other. Only when they had finally arrived at Mui Ne and the bus stopped for them to get off, did Lan look at Troy again, and it was only to indicate that they had to get off.

They said nothing to each other as they made their way to her village.

Troy noted that Mui Ne was some kind of fishing village. It was beside the sea and had sandy beaches and fresh palm trees everywhere. He felt the air of a cool sea breeze, so different from that in Saigon, and it brushed through his brown hair and only his sweaty face. His shoes sunk about half an inch into the sand at every step, walking heavily uphill on a mount of white sand. Troy was beginning to lose his breath as he followed Lan, who had purposely walked in front of him.

"How long until he get there?" Troy asked through breaths.

"About fifteen minutes," Lan answered, not looking back. She seemed to be trying to get further ahead, so Troy forced himself to continue a conversation or else she'd unconsciously leave him behind. He also had to take this chance to explain himself for the tension that had started it all.

"Hey," he called out. "Uh, about what happened on the bus—"

"Did you get any rest?" Lan interrupted, glancing at him once over her shoulder. Troy looked down at the sand that scattered onto his shoes as he stepped onto it.

"No," he answered.

"Me neither," Lan muttered under her breath, her focus firmly in front of her.

"What?" Troy asked. Lan snapped out of her daze and realized she had spoken out loud. She blushed again, but luckily had her back to him.

"Uh… nothing," she stammered. But it wasn't nothing, Troy could clearly see it. He stopped in his tracks.

"You care about me," he said, stunned. Lan stopped as well and spun around to him, suddenly looking defensive and angry.

"Well, I can't _not_ care about you!" she snapped. "You're supposed to be my boyfriend, remember?!" She bit her lip, shocked and embarrassed at her sudden outburst. She dropped her eyes to the ground and crossed her arms in an attempt to regain her dignity. Troy, though quite shocked as well at her overreaction, managed to pull himself out of the thick tension first.

"You're right," he said, clearing his throat and nervously straightening his shirt collar. "You're right, it's supposed to be like this. We're supposed to care about one another and act like… like…" Troy cleared his throat again to trail off. Lan straightened her pink shirt in the same awkward manner, and forced a professional expression as she looked back at Troy.

"We should start speaking Vietnamese when we see my parents," she said frankly. Troy nodded.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Yeah, you're right."

Lan glared at him as he trailed off again. It made her feel awkward when he didn't break the silence.

"Come on," she urged, returning to the road. "Let's go, we're wasting time." Troy followed her, but he still couldn't catch up with her.

"I should call you _em_, shouldn't I?" he said considerably. Whenever he had spoken Vietnamese to Lan, which hadn't been much, he had referred to her as _co_, which literally meant _Miss_._ Em_ was an affectionate term a man would call his sweetheart. She would call him_ anh_ in the same sense. Lan grimaced and walked faster.

"Whatever," she exclaimed. "You're talking nonsense."

"Theodore said that," Troy explained. "Not me." He frowned a little, a thought just hitting him at why Lan was acting this way. He stopped again. "Don't take it as something else…"

Lan stopped too and spun around to him, looking even more angry than before.

"Of course not!" she snarled. "I'm just acting!" Troy was taken aback by how sensitive she was about this. He felt the Lan from the train wasn't an illusion in his mind after all.

"Alright," he said briskly, very irritated now. "What's up with you?"

"What?" Lan shot viciously. She took a step closer to him, and her eyes flashed green again. "You think just because I call you _anh_, I have feelings for you? Well, I don't!!"

She turned at her heel and marched back uphill. Troy quickly ran after her.

"I hope not," he told her with a slight stutter. "Because on the bus, you looked at me like—" Lan stopped suddenly and Troy almost ran into her.

"Like what?" she demanded. Troy backed away a bit as she started poking his chest with her finger. "It's not what you think, if that's what you're thinking! Stop assuming everything!" She went back to walking. While a baffled and rather offended Troy didn't even bother to follow her.

"Good!" he shouted. "Because I don't want anything to happen between us!"

Lan was a few feet ahead but she still turned around.

"So you think something is happening?" she asked, marching back down. Troy backed away again.

"Well," he said, attempting to back up his statement. "Well, you went to the back of the bus…"

"Because you looked sleepy!" she cried.

This was an argument that was obviously going to go on for a while, and Lan had no plans to back down. Troy realized he couldn't win if he kept quarrelling; there wasn't much time. He took a deep breath and placed his hand on his forehead.

"I just want to make sure," he said calmly. Lan calmed a little at well and she crossed her arms again. Troy's eyes drifted away from hers. "I just want to make sure because… because I have a fiancée."

He didn't know what other reason he could use at a moment like this, but bringing up the sole reason why he was agreeing to go along with her seemed, in his mind, as a good reason. Somehow, it did nothing to clear the tension or awkwardness. In other words, it seemed to make it all worse. Lan's expression slowly changed from outrage to hurt.

"Are you saying I set you up so I would fall for you on purpose?" she asked in disgust. "You think I'd just fall for an American man like you, like that?"

Troy felt guilt plunge into his stomach as he stared into her eyes. They shone with a new emotion, and he regretted opening his mouth and saying all those things. Lan shook her head at him.

"Why do you keep looking down at me?" she asked sadly. She glanced down at the pants she had given him, his alert face that had rested in her bed, and his eager spirit that she had nurtured in telling him she would get him home. She gave him so much, but he was an American, and now she knew it was true that Americans were arrogant and pompous.

No, her plan wasn't worth it if she had to look at him for another second.

"I regret meeting you," she told him in a hard voice. "And I never want to see you again!" She pulled up her shoulder bag and stormed off. Troy again tried to run after her.

"Wait!" he called out. "Wait…!" Lan turned around one last time.

"Don't follow me!" she shouted. Their eyes locked and again that emotion filled up that made them both not know what to do next. Lan, though with difficulty, forced herself to ignore it. "I've had enough of this."

Her mane of hair swung back elegantly as for the last time she resumed the original route, and when she walked away, she didn't stop. Troy just stared after her, her words sinking in.

He knew there was no way he could talk her into stopping and arguing while she walked away, and he didn't want that anyway. He realized now without Lan he was as helpless and pathetic as he was in the few hours last night without her. He was in a foreign country, miles and miles away from anyone else he knew. Lan was his only hope.

Troy began to laugh weakly.

"Co…" he said. "_Miss…_" He laughed again. "I was kidding. It was a joke…" He grinned crookedly. "It's funny. The joke's funny. I'm laughing, see?" He laughed again.

Why was he still talking? Lan had disappeared over the hill.

"Co?" Troy piped.

No answer. Lan was definitely gone.

* * *

Thuy and Chad finally arrived back at the QQ Hotel after an hour-long trip by train. They were both reasonably nervous in going back, and instead of barging into the room with the frantic news, both men cowardly stood outside the door, telling the other to turn the handle. 

"You've known Troy longer," Thuy argued. "You should tell them."

"But you're the native around here," Chad shot back. "You shouldn't have gotten us lost in the first place." Thuy shrugged.

"Well, you were the one who bought the ticket!" he said with impatience. Chad rolled his eyes.

"You're the one who ordered it!" he shouted.

A second later, both the boys regretted speaking so loudly. They heard footsteps approaching from inside Troy and Gabriella's room. Chad immediately pushed Thuy in front of him like a human shield when the door opened.

It was Taylor, and as soon as she realized it was them, her casual look melted.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" she spat. With her superhuman strength, she grabbed each of the boys, pulled them in and threw them onto the couch. She crossed her arms and stood right in front of them, demanding answers. Chad chuckled weakly and stood up.

"Honey," he began.

"Don't you _honey_ me!!" Taylor snapped. Chad shrank back down into his seat. "What the hell happened?!?" Kim ran in from the other room.

"What's going on?" she asked. As soon as her eyes fell on Thuy, she too transformed into scary wife mode. "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?!?!?" Thuy flinched at the sight of his wife.

"We can explain," he said quickly. "Please, let us explain…"

"There was a train," Chad added. "And Troy—"

"Where is he?!?" Taylor demanded. Chad gulped.

"We… we don't know," he squeaked. Kim's eyes widened dangerously.

"You… don't … know…?" Her words came out like puffs of steam from a water-heater that was seconds from exploding.

"We need to talk to Gabriella," Thuy said desperately.

"She's gone out," Kim told him through clenched teeth. "Troy left a message and a number at the front desk, and when Gabby called it, a woman picked up."

There was an awkward silence.

"A woman?" Chad repeated, flabbergasted. "That can't be—"

"Then, tell us what it's all about!!" Taylor fumed. "Where is he?!?! Do you know what Gabriella is saying? She says if he isn't back on time for the party, she thinks he's run off with another woman!! Explain!!!!"

This was the moment the boys had feared. It was even scarier than they thought. Chad couldn't bring himself to speak, biting his tongue so he wouldn't burst into tears, but Thuy knew wives too well to not say anything.

"We put him on the wrong train," he said calmly. He stubbornly closed his eyes so he wouldn't see the reaction and ignored anyone's attempts to interrupt him. "We got him to come drinking with us, and he got drunk. We put him on a one-way train by accident and it went to Phan Thiet. We followed it but when we got there, we found out he took a taxi, which was strange because me and Chad took his wallet and his passport, as well as his pants altogether. Anyway, we found the driver and he took us to the exact place where he dropped Troy off when he found out he didn't have any money. He drove off before we could ask where we were, so we were stuck in some unknown place for a few hours. We still had the bike, so we rode on it for some time before it ran out of gas. We walked and tried to hike a ride, but _someone_ couldn't run fast enough. We walked and walked for a few hours and arrived at some station, so we took the train back home to tell you and Gabriella everything that happened, and hope that you'll understand completely."

Thuy slowly opened his eyes.

Kim and Taylor had transformed into man-eating wolves, but they looked like they understood every single word he just said.

"You made him drink?" Taylor said in a dangerous whisper.

"You put him on a train?" Kim hissed in the same voice. "To Phan Thiet??"

Chad and Thuy sat there, petrified, and for a moment, they saw their lives flash before their eyes.

There was no other way of escaping; they had to tell them everything.


End file.
